


It Happened

by Kit_SummerIsle



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: M/M, Mpreg, Spark Sex, Sticky Sex, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-12
Updated: 2012-11-28
Packaged: 2017-11-14 02:51:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 44,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/510537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit_SummerIsle/pseuds/Kit_SummerIsle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two mechs in a cave is nothing new. Two enemies at that. One of them is asleep. The other is having... embarassing thoughts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Underground

**Author's Note:**

> The story idea came from an anonymous kinkmeme request:  
> http://tfanonkink.livejournal.com/3587.html?thread=4738307#t4738307

Seekers fascinated many mechs over the ages. Orion Pax wasn’t an exception, although he didn’t get to see that many fliers while he was a simple dockworker in Iacon. But there were still stories, legends, and the young mech would be absolutely embarrassed to admit, but he even saw some picture files with beautiful fliers in completely innocent – but still highly suggestive positions. Accidentally, of course, but it didn’t retract from the enjoyment the young mech watched them with.

As he became Optimus Prime, he saw only marginally more Seekers but sadly none in those suggestive positions – they were usually trying to kill him and his mechs which made for an entirely different attitude towards them. Albeit Jazz once brought back some footage that showed Starscream in a strangely vulnerable position, even if it was because Megatron has thrown him into a wall and he ended up with long, sensuous legs wide open and those delectable red plates displayed just so… he saved the file into his memory banks, hoping that no mech would catch him secretly fawning over it. He kept his slight little infatuation a secret from every mech naturally.

He’d of course never consort with the enemy, much less with the proven treacherous and extremely dangerous Decepticon SIC. But a mech can dream, now, can he? Maybe the war ends one day, they both survive it and the proud Seeker might be amiable to being courted by the ruler of the planet – provided he would be the one still. Not that he saw any real possibility for it ever happening, but he still fantasized about it sometimes. It might be the only advantage of being the Prime, beside all the work and responsibility…

But he had to tuck that dream back to his memory banks, because he had immediate problems, namely Megatron’s fists that proceeded to pummel him, while he was distracted by the tricoloured Seeker flying overhead. He couldn’t afford to be distracted. Even if it was just a regular dance that they usually did in battles these orns. Optimus Prime shook his helm, to get it rid of both the ringing that Megatron’s fist caused and the delicious view of Starscream’s underside flashing by over their helms.

They were fighting to drive out the Decepticons from the nuclear plant before they had a chance to make it explode and swamp the nearby area and its human residences with deadly radiation. It was serious business and Optimus Prime forced himself to concentrate on his task; that is to stop Megatron and make him order the Decepticons to retreat with or without the energon that they gathered. They already went on about it too long and it never bode well for the Humans nearby. 

Optimus ducked a swing from Megatron’s fusion cannon – that thing could hit almost as painfully as it could shoot – and pummeled him into the torso plates. It wasn’t intended to hurt him, as those wore his heaviest armour-plates, only to drive him backwards with the force. Which was kinda working and keeping him afar from the nuclear plant was definitely a good idea. Megatron was pretty much predictable this way – give him opportunity to wreak havoc and he will. Keep him away from said opportunity and he will pout, blame Starscream and call a retreat.

“Decepticons! Retreat!”

Ohh, yes, predictable. Optimus Prime straightened up to survey the battlefield. They did get a bit farther from it as he intended but he could see that nothing disastrous happened. Prowl was directing to mop-up, Ratchet tended… it might have been Sideswipe or Ironhide, he only saw a glint of red in the rising dust. Where did all that dust come from? Looking the other way, he saw. Uhh-ohh. A dust-storm arising from the desert. It could even be dangerous for them, especially the wounded, if the fine particles of sand found their way under their armour.

“Optimus Prime, are you… kssshrt... all right, Sir?” – great, it was starting to break up the comm too. Not entirely unexpected, as the windblown particles carried a fairly strong electrical charge that could adversely affect communications.

“Yes, Prowl, I’m mostly unharmed.” – he paused, weighing what to say – “In case this storm gets stronger, let’s get everyone back to the Ark whatever way we can. I am a bit further from the lot of you and will go for the Ark directly.”

“Affirmative, Sir. The Decepticons retreated… skrrrtch… although I saw one Seeker cominssssrtfgt… down in the storm, near your position. Be careful, Sir.” – static was starting to swallow his Second’s words and Optimus was sure it was sounding the same way to him too.

“I will Prowl. Comm is breaking up. I’m starting towards the Ark. I see no Seeker nearby yet.”

“Aye… kshrrrt… Sir.” – with that his HUD informed him that the comm line went dead and reestablising the connection was unlikely in the near future.

Optimus Prime looked around to get his bearings but by this time the dust was obstructing everything around him. He started towards the Ark the best he could ascertain the direction, on foot, as he did not particularly want to transform and let all this dust get into his gears and innards. The reddish dust was soon obscuring his colours and the surroundings, just like it did with the light, casting a red-hued semi-darkness onto the unseen landscape. 

He could only hope that he was still going into the right direction. The dust itself wasn’t dangerous this way, maybe a bit scouring his finish, but not causing anything worse than that. Sunstreaker was probably swearing up a storm about it but Optimus Prime has never been a particularly vain mech so his paint-job was way down the list of things.

Unfortunately he didn’t find the surface of the road that he was aiming for and what could lead him back towards the Ark; it must have meant that he started the wrong way. Not a good omen. He tried to remember what lay the opposite of the plant and the road they arrived from. In the hurry of fighting the Cons, he didn’t have a good look at the surroundings, only that it was a desolate land as the dust storm too proved.

As he walked on the sandy, pebbled surface, servos protecting his optics from the dust, he thought that he heard strange creaking noises that came through even the whistling of the wind and the white-noise like sound of the wind-blown dust-particles. It sounded almost ominous. Optimus Prime stopped and tried to tune his audials more to the strange frequency, to filter out the storm’s noises, but to no avail; the suspicious sound stopped as well.

He made one step experimentally, then another, and there it was again. Only clearer now, a kind of a groaning, creaking sound. _Was there someone nearby?_ He could still see nothing in the reddish haze and the sound came strangely from everywhere, not from any particular direction. He moved slower now, cautious of finding some mech in the storm. _Prowl did say that a Seeker came down in his direction, didn’t he?_ It wouldn’t be good to stumble into an irate, injured, grounded, therefore dangerous Seeker in the storm.

He didn’t stumble into a Seeker, or any other mechs for that matter. The groaning sound was getting stronger and included worrying, sharp cracklings as well. By the time Optimus realized that it all came from underfoot, it was too late. With a sound like a crack of a whip magnified a thousandfold, the ground opened up under his pede and he felt himself falling down a short way before crashing into the ground and sliding further down on a steep slope for several kliks and coming to a rest in a pile of sand.

Something rumbled ominously behind and when even the reddish haze disappeared, Optimus knew that the opening behind, where he fell in was now closed by the active tectonics of the planet. He was underground and closed in. It is not that he was claustrophobic, no. There was a little danger if the rocks above weighed so much that his superstructure couldn’t take it, but even then, his spark chamber would survive and Ratchet could put him back together with some work. But he was buried without a way to contact to his mechs, who didn’t even know where he was.

But the fact that the unseen ceiling hasn’t come down on him yet gave him some hope that it was a naturally existing cave, able to hold up and stay that way overhead. After the sound of falling rocks has diminished, Optimus cautiously sit up, dislodging a few cubic meters of sand and pebbles and cast a quick scan around. The cave he fell in wasn’t too spacious by his standards, although humans would probably consider it big. But it went on both ways, aside from the wall where he saw the loose rubble slope that marked his entrance. A tunnel then, rather than a single cave.

More troubling was that his scan couldn’t reach the surface any way. It meant that the slide was steeper than he thought and deposited him deeper than he felt comfortable. The entrance through which he came in was completely blocked by loose rocks and sand and which could bury him if he tried to dislodge it, so he’d have to find another way out. Solid rock behaved more predictable than loose scree.

He choose the tunnel that went a few tenths of a degree upwards and was slightly wider than the one leading down and started moving in it, careful not to touch or hit the walls and overhangs, for fear of causing a potentially fatal cave-in. The night vision came handy as he discovered his headlights to be broken, meaning that he had no other light source than his optics – little enough even up close and completely useless in the big tunnel. 

He went on for half a tek in the curving, twisting tunnel before he saw another scree of rubble almost blocking it. It was quite similar to his own entrance and Optimus had a sudden premonition that almost made him go back the other way. But since the tunnel started to lead significantly upwards, it seemed the best course out, so he went on, cautiously squirming through the gap that was barely wide and tall enough to let him pass. 

On the other side of the blockade there were marks on the rocky surfaces, scratches, broken stalactites and even a burn on a wall high enough to suspect that they could have been caused by another mech moving around, like he had. Organics as a rule were distinctly smaller than them and few of them inhabited the deeper underground caves. He followed the marks; not that he could do anything else in the distinctly one-way tunnel and stopped at the suddenly widening mouth, scanning the larger cave that it opened to cautiously.

There he was, Optimus thought, distinctly a mech and around as big as himself. That left not many mechs on Earth and most of them were Decepticons. Moving closer silently, he observed the shape with his night vision too; scanners could tell much about dimensions and composition but were not very informative about form. But the first glance that caught the wide expanse of the wings confirmed his suspicions that stemmed from what Prowl had said: it was a Seeker. He seemed to be offline, but from where he was he couldn’t tell if it was simple recharge or stasis from injuries.


	2. Wandering thoughts

Optimus had a lot of emotions swirling inside as he approached the Seeker, still overly cautious of the Decepticon. His processor was shouting danger, his memory banks kept pulling up that long-saved picture of him, while his meta was… well, interested was the least embarrassing word for it. Closer glance affirmed him to be Starscream; although he could see no colours, but his slighter build was distinctive among the Earth Seekers. He was still big enough, albeit not as much as Thundercracker and he was known to be highly dangerous in close combat as well.

But he didn’t seem to move, not even when Optimus was close enough to almost touch him. Had he been simply in recharge, he’d have set his proximity sensors to warn him of danger – Starscream was said to be cautious to the point of paranoia almost. So, why did he not move? The Seeker was sitting by the cave wall, his wings drooping as his back leaned on an outcropping in a pose that even looked uncomfortable. The dark helm was nodding to the side and his slim, long legs were tangled up like he fell suddenly for some reason.

Optimus Prime squatted down in front of him, not quite yet ready to touch the mech, but already sure that he was either in a very deep recharge or in stasis. He didn’t want to think that the Seeker was deactivated. Why, he wasn’t sure; logically, the demise of the enemy SIC would be highly beneficial to the Autobot cause. But Optimus didn’t want to be logical for some reason and he tuned up his audios to the highest sensitivity to catch the mech’s invents if there were any, only half hoping that he’d need to help, maybe even revive the Seeker. 

The slight movement of air that he caught in the stillness of the cave confirmed that Starscream was indeed alive, just deeply offline temporarily. How temporal it was going to be, Optimus, not being a medic couldn’t tell. The scan and his visual observations only showed scratches, dents and a slightly torn wing-pane that had a faint, smoky smell too, but no energon leak and no dangerous injuries. Of course he could have banged his helm on the way down, but Optimus rather thought that a mech who could stand being regularly beaten and flung into walls by Megatron wasn’t going to be seriously harmed by a moderately severe rock-slide underground.

Besides he had to move to this place from the tunnel where he ended up under his own power. Admittedly it wasn’t a great distance, but still. Optimus tried to remember what Ratchet – or was it Kup way back on Cybertron? – told him about older Seekers. Claustrophobia, yes that everyone knew about them, but it wasn’t the complete picture. There was something about the dark… yes, he remembered now. The defensive mechanism, coded exactly to counter the claustrophobic panic. If in an enclosed space, but in the dark and safe from immediate harm, shut down, recharge and not cause any more injuries to himself. The circumstances had to be exact, but the darkness was the trigger.

Optimus watched the Seeker slumbering quietly, safe from his own nature, safe from any outside influence, safe from anything affecting him normally. It was strange to see the always energetic, proud, loud and paranoid mech to be so peaceful. He was almost sure that no mech aside maybe from his Trine has ever seen Starscream so quiet and calm. Even with the colourless night-vision he was a marvelous sight, one that he loved to stare at. 

The long, slim leg struts that held so much power to propel his frame into the air. The slim, almost femme-like frame with the gleaming white and cherry red colours that his memory banks helpfully supplied to the picture. The dark helm and faceplates that, for once did not distort in a sneer or a scowl. Last, but not at least the wide expanse of the wings, presently drooping by his arms with those deadly null-rays, now slumbering with him. 

In short, the Seeker was beautiful, Optimus concluded, feeling a bit guilty just to ravish him with his optics so...

Trying his comm, but hearing it still unable to contact, Optimus stood up to walk around the cave, now that he ascertained that Starscream was no danger. It was a dead end, he was forced to realize soon, no tunnel of useful size leading out in any direction other than the way in. So that’s why the Seeker gave up. He couldn’t get across the blockade in the tunnel, his far wider wingspan made it impossible. Optimus could have gone back, but leaving the Seeker there, recharging in the darkness forever, until a landslide or cave-in deactivated him – the thought itself made him almost ill. 

He couldn’t do that, not to anyone he told himself. It went against his beliefs and ideals anyway. Starscream was at the moment a fellow Cybertronian, captured by uncaring elements, held prisoner by his very nature that made him claustrophobic and as defensive measure that put him offline… He wasn’t an enemy right now, no danger and no malicious trap to ensnare him and as such the Prime couldn’t in clear conscience leave him to an almost certain, slow deactivation.

It wouldn’t be fitting death for him, the thought flashed through Optimus Prime’s processor, not for a proud warrior like Starscream to deactivate slowly in the dark, unknown by any mech else, forgotten and ingloriously. He knew quite well that the Decepticons wouldn’t look for him, and even if his Trine did, there was no way they’d find him with life-signs as faint as he had and underground as deep as he surmised that they were.

Circling the cave once more and finding no way out Optimus Prime returned to the Seeker’s side. Watching the mech he realized slowly how uncomfortable his frame slumped onto the ground, half sitting, half lying by the wall-outcropping. Hesitantly he stretched out a servo, almost expecting Starscream to come online screeching as he touched the nearer thruster, intending to straighten his tangled legs. But nothing happened and before he could do what he wanted, his digits slid around the slightly warm, silky metal, enjoying the sensation…

Optimus jerked away his servo when he realized what it was doing. _I’m so not petting Starscream’s thruster, no way!_ It was unbecoming for him to exploit the Seeker’s inability to react anyway. Had the flier been online he’d be so much scrap already for daring to assume and touch… but he wasn’t and a defiant thread of thought arose in Optimus’s processor. There was no mech around to see them and Starscream would never know about the neutral touch only intending to settle him comfortably and a sensual one, indulging his fantasies innocently… it wasn’t as though he’d do any more to the Seeker!

The blunt, blue digits extended again towards the similarly coloured pedes, lightly touching the edge, following the smaller nooks and protrusions that felt so small and delicate, but were in fact built to withstand energies of a mighty jet-engine. Optimus was awed by this seeming contradiction and his digits continued to map out the slim, yet so strong legs. He lifted the right one, untangling it from the other, smoothing a plate that bent slightly outwards, sliding on the smaller scratches and dents…

His meta was still fighting its inner battle of decorum, caution and desire whirling around in it. Optimus knew that he shouldn’t indulge himself so, even if these were just innocent touches – mostly - but the circumstances were so extreme, the dark affecting him too, that he couldn’t stop. Not even caution could make him tear the content and indulging digits away from their playground, the smooth, warm metal of Starscream’s plating. The desire, stronger by the klik and by the touch, he could hold back. So far. 

With only slight difficulties from his strangely errant and wandering digits, Optimus arranged the limp Seeker’s frame and struts into a position that was more comfortable than the tangled heap he fell into. It only took a little more time than it would if his servos didn’t take their time to discover previously never touched, uncharted territory. And he had time, in fact they both had plenty of time before the storm was gone and his Autobots could even start to look for them.

Optimus could only hope that the place where they fell into the apparently unstable ground left enough marks for his mechs to be suspicious and look for them below the ground. Their normal equipment and scanners wouldn’t be able to sense them so far underground, but if they thought to bring specialized sensors, they might be able to find them. Until then… they had to wait patiently.

Optimus Prime was a patient mech normally. He had to exercise and hone his patience on mechs like Sideswipe, Wheeljack or Ironhide – not to mention Jazz - and their influence went a good way to make their Prime excellent in that regard. He was perfectly capable of sitting beside the soundly recharging, therefore not dangerous Starscream for orns if needed, thinking about strategy against the Decepticons, diplomatic issues with the Humans and any number of other, neutral topics. Or so he thought.

But no matter what train of thoughts he started, they all seemed to end up with his unwilling, and unconscious companion. Long buried fantasies came up unbidden from his memory banks, making him glad for the darkness as they made him blush a number of times. Newer pictures of Starscream – awake, screeching, sneering, snarking or else – came forward to entertain his meta as projected to the dark, colourless and unmoving frame beside him. Optimus squirmed slightly closer as he sat, servo sneaking out to touch the Seeker to ascertain that he was still there.

_Of course he is there, stop it!_ – he chided himself, embarrassed after the third or so such occurrence, when he started to think about a way to stop the Cons from taking hostages in battles and ended up – _yet again!_ – touching Starscream’s wing nearer to him. It was totally unbecoming of him. Yet, he couldn’t stop and it made the situation all the more disturbing. Optimus contemplated even to go back the way he came leaving only a marker by the Seeker so that he could be found later.

But when he stood up and left the cave, refusing to look back, Optimus was attacked by new thoughts – _what if there is a cave-in and he is crushed by the weight of the rock?_ \- Starscream had far less and lighter armour than himself, built more for speed than for combat. Definitely not for bearing heavy weight crushing him. _I can’t leave him to that uncertain fate, now, can I?_ He turned back from the tunnel, fighting with his own desires and conflicting logic and sat down by the supine Seeker again. 

It didn’t even take a breem before his digits found warm plating again and his thoughts scattered like a school of fish with a shark’s shadow falling on them. The metal was not only warm with a silky smooth finish so surprising from a fearless warrior, but it… _did it tremble just a little under his slow strokes? Was Starscream waking up from my inappropriate touches?_ \- Optimus pulled his servo away from the delicious metal about the tenth time and looked as sheepish as it was useless in the dark with no mech around.

He steeled his resolve. Pit damn it, he was the Prime and if he could keep his servos to himself when he opened that storage closet and found his medic and both frontliners together in an afterglow recharge… then it should cause him no hardship to keep from touching the enemy Seeker, the screeching, annoying, traitorous Starscream. None whatsoever. Optimus crossed his servos on his chest-plates to keep them from wandering and set his processor firmly on the coming up summit with the Human leaders. Starscream was an enemy. Not an object of desire. This has to stop now.


	3. Crumbling strength

In retrospect that thought about the summit was not one of his best ideas. Human diplomatic meetings were invariably duller than Prowl reporting inventory. At least Prowl didn’t want to trick the other officers who had to listen to him drawling on and he never lied, which was not something he could tell about most of the humans. So, thinking of that truly wasn’t good enough to take his meta off of things like… things like Starscream beside him. 

Optimus cast one look at the Seeker. Just one look, he promised himself, to see if he was still there, still in recharge. Starscream didn’t go anywhere unfortunately. Didn’t even move since he arranged his limbs into a more comfortable position. It was beyond queer to see him still and quiet for so long; usually he wasn’t either for nanokliks most of the time. His resolve started to fray at the edges. _Was it so wrong just to watch? Innocently, without harming the mech, just to indulge my long-ago fantasies when no mech could see it?_ Surely not. No touch. Just look… and fantasize.

His memory-Starscream merged with the real article and Optimus started to enjoy the spectacle that his eager processor readily painted for him. Memory-Starscream lay exactly like he arranged the mech’s frame, half propped up by the wall, those long, delicious leg-struts slightly apart, supplying the vibrant colours from memory to the darkness-covered Seeker. Optimus reached out with a bolder servo, now that he was only doing it in his meta, to caress the wing like he had always wanted to. 

It trembled at his touch and emboldened, he slid a digit into the aileron, quite curious if those were as sensitive as he heard that they were. The reaction dispelled all his doubts. The wing trembled so strong that it shook and lifted up, to push itself into his servo. Optimus scooted closer in his imagination and employed his other servo as well to discover the other hotspots on the nimble frame. 

With more decisive strokes, the blue servos slid, petted and caressed the warming metal of the wings, dipped curiously into the vents, eliciting delicious shudders and found seams to reach for wiring underneath. His memory-Starscream was moaning already, his warming frame almost constantly shuddering under his learning, boldening, surer by the klik touches. Optimus moved even closer in his fantasies, straddling those delectable leg-struts, dipping his digits into the turbines and enjoying the shaking that it elicited from the mech…

… and he sat up, suddenly realizing that what he believed to occur only in his meta, was actually very much real. He did kneel over Starscream’s leg-struts, molested his wings, vents and any plating he could reach and… _Primus, what am I, a pervert? Could I not even keep my servos off the Seeker for even a breem?_ Maybe it was wrong to indulge in such an act even in his fantasies. Yes, it was definitely wrong. Starscream would not want this, any of it, certainly not from him. No matter how incredibly hot he found the Seeker’s reaction. Because the Seeker did react not only in his imagination. He did warm up and shuddered, the wingtips trembling oh-so-sensually…

But embarrassed and self-conscious, as he felt, Optimus still couldn’t stand up again to leave the Seeker alone. He continued to kneel in front of him, his night vision ravishing the mech, enraptured by the sight and his own arousal that he couldn’t deny any more. They were both running hot now and he caused it. Optimus forced himself to admit it in his mind at least: _I molested a mech unable to say no._ It was so very deeply wrong, he didn’t even know how to set it right. Or that he’d want to set it right…

The most alarming thought that came fore in his processor was that he didn’t even want to stop and that if he was already in the wrong then he was already lost. Why stop then? A small part of his processor was rebelling against the all-perfect picture that he always tried to show to the Autobots. He wasn’t perfect and he had always known it. He made plenty of mistakes when he was younger, he made somewhat less as he gained experience, but still, mechs died and battles were lost when he did so. Could he not make this one more mistake now? Could he stop himself from making it?

He made personal mistakes as well, moral wrongs – looking back it was a mistake and more to leave Elita-1 to the mercy of Shockwave on Cybertron. No matter that he couldn’t do anything else, it was still wrong and weighed heavily on his conscience. _And wasn’t it also wrong to betray my own brother, when I thought their differences to be too great to make up the rift between us?_ So he definitely wasn’t that perfect mech that his Autobots thought him to be, and definitely not that shining hero that his brother often mocked him to be.

_Was one more mistake that no mech would even know about, that bad a thing?_ Yes, he’d remember it, but he could make up for it too. Starscream wouldn’t even know about what he was going to do. If he was going to do it… If the reports were to be believed, the mech interfaced with just about anyone on a regular basis. Even if they were exaggerating, Seekers were interface-crazies so he’d done it with his Trine a lot if his reaction to the simple petting was any indication.

And he hasn’t had an interface for the good part of the last few thousand vorns. No wonder that he got all hot and bothered after only a few touches that he lavished on the Seeker and watching him react to these so deliciously. They didn’t even need to be reciprocated and he already felt the desire turning into lust. _Surely the fact that Starscream’s frame reacted to my touches so nicely meant that he’d agree if he could?_ Well, probably not without some screeches and snarking, but he could be swayed by being nice and caring to him. _Right?_

Optimus half still knew that he was rationalizing an inexcusable act, but his processor was already half gone in his long-repressed, deep-seated desire and the object of that desire splayed out in front of him unable to protest, reacting unconsciously to him just as he’d’ve wished in his fantasies… and the fact that no mech would ever knew of what happened, not even the Seeker. His servos absentmindedly stroked and massaged the plating and wires that they could reach, his meta long given up resisting to touch him.

He was still debating what would follow though. Interface… it was, well, more than just some touches. Quite a bit more. _I really shouldn’t do this._ He really should have more resolve to withstand the allure of Starscream splayed out under him all hot and inviting. Only… he couldn’t. The touches got closer and closer to the cherry red pelvic plates. He couldn’t stop them. Somewhere, at the back of his mind a small voice was still ordering him to stop right there. But it was weakening, its small sound lost in the rush of energon that he felt in his processor, swamping any conscious thought with lust.

His whole frame was running hotter than usual, just like Starscream’s. He felt it through his plating, through his digits, felt from the hot air the Seeker’s vents were pushing out in an effort to cool it down. But the hottest was behind his panel, where his swelling spike was getting uncomfortably cramped. A tiny measure of sanity that he still possessed somewhere was still holding him back. Barely.

A click sounded in the silence of the cave like a gunshot. Optimus Prime’s optics were drawn to the origin of it and he stared at the opening panel of the Seeker. He didn’t touch it, he was sure, he didn’t force the panel open, it opened in reaction of his teasing touches elsewhere. But his internal temperature skyrocketed at the sight of the bared, dripping valve. His lust-drowned processor took it as consent, even though he knew that in reality it wasn’t.

The fact that he didn’t force the Seeker to it, that Starscream did it himself made everything a bit more bearable. _Surely, even offline a mech would have this much control over such a sensitive piece of his own frame?_ But Optimus didn’t have any more cognitive say in the matter as instincts took over from him. He could only hope that the Seeker dreamt about being with his Trine-mates intimately and not a nightmare of the enemy faction-leader raping him. _No, not rape. Forget that word. Interface,_ his burning meta insisted, _it is an interface, nothing stronger._

His own panel clicked open and revealed his aching spike that felt wonderful to be out and able to distend fully. The small voice of his consciousness disappeared with the onslaught of sensory feedback. His digits moved towards the dripping valve like a magnet was there, unable to deviate, pushing into the soft metallic folds gently. The Seeker’s valve was tight but being larger than himself it wasn’t a problem. He could stretch it so it wouldn’t harm him in any way. _I have no intention of harming him,_ his processor whispered, _quite the opposite. He’d wake up and feel better than ever in his function._ Apparently even his shyness was fast disappearing in the light of the impending interface.

“Optmmss… kshtt… an you hear me?” – the comm came like a giant bucket of ice dumped on him and Optimus yanked his digits out of the dripping valve like it grew fangs suddenly. He rebooted his vocalizer twice before he felt strong enough to answer.

“Barely, Prowl. Khmm… have you found my signal?” – he very much hoped that the comm signal was as bad and staticky on the other end as it was here, so Prowl wouldn’t be suspicious about his voice being shaky and breathy.

“Yes… kshrttt… found it. But we have prrrrobkhsslems with human authorities. We cannot dig y… krghssst… yet. Need a few joorssskhst… burocracy. …. Kshrtsss… is a national park.”

“U-understood, Prowl. I’ll… wait for you then.”

“I am sorry Prime. We can’t workshfttss… faster with the humans.”

“N-no problem. I understand. I have found Starscream too here, but he is… ummm… no danger – he is offline and I’ll keep him that way.” – he very much hoped he could!

“Good to… kshrrt… know, Sir. We’ll hurry.”

If he’d hoped that the short conversation with Prowl would cool his desire down, Optimus was sorely mistaken. The klik his comm went offline, his desire came back… with a vengeance. He stared at his lubricant dripping digits with his night vision, before lifting them to his lip-plates and parting the face-mask, he tentatively tasted the Seeker’s essence. It was just as good as he imagined… and Optimus was lost back into the desire he was before the comm call – of which he hardly even remembered by this time.

The only difference was that now he knew for sure that he had an undisturbed few joors with Starscream and he wouldn’t have to be worried about being discovered in the most embarrassing moment. It crumbled further his already ruined morale and Optimus Prime finally gave in. He couldn’t fight off the desire for another few joors. He would regret it later, ohh, he knew that he would. No matter how he tried to rationalize, it was wrong to do this. But he professed to himself that he simply wasn’t strong enough to withstand the temptation.


	4. Spark

With almost infinite gentleness, Optimus Prime slid his open palms up on those long leg-struts and over the slight curve of the pelvic plates. His digits found the valve unerringly again and pushing back into the hot, wet tightness was pure bliss. While his digits went in and teased the nodes in the inside, his glossa found the spike-housing and lavished kisses and licks to it. Starscream’s spike didn’t extend as that action required conscious will, but the plate did grow hotter and he felt the valve caliper tighten erratically around his digits. As reactions went from an offline mech it wasn’t so bad.

Optimus took a little time to stretch the tight valve, but not too much; his own arousal was almost painful and the Seeker was ready soon; perhaps the effect of lively interfacing life as the rumours said, perhaps not, but he was well past about caring for the reason. Moving upwards he positioned himself over the Seeker and holding the limp frame by the hips with his servos, he pushed slowly in, moaning low as the valve’s tight folds enveloped his spike in their depth. 

The last fragments of his screaming conscience – _don’t do this, it’s not too late to stop…!_ \- were blown away with the sensation. Buried into the limp Seeker’s valve, Optimus still wanted to give him what he would had he been online and his servos danced again on the sensitive wings, lightly scratching the white plating, dipping into the fixtures and gently tightening on the wingtips. He was sure that that last one elicited a strong reaction from the offline flier and maybe even a low moan; but the valve calipers clearly tightened around his spike, grasping it as he started to pull out and thrust back. 

His mouth found the Seeker’s too and kissed him deeply, pushing his glossa between the unresponsive lipplates, finding his glossa too – but kissing apparently was also a consciously directed act and finding him unable to respond, he left the slack mouth soon. It made Starscream feel too much offline and the bad feeling that never completely disappeared, got a tiny bit stronger as he realized that he was missing the blue servos from his own plating, their grasp and movements on his own seams… not the arousal, he didn’t lack for that, but the active partner’s usual, natural movements that were totally missing.

For a few kliks he imagined the Seeker online and writhing under his ministrations, being an equal partner in their interfacing, consenting and accepting him, giving as good as he got… but alas, it wasn’t to be and the next thrust into the hot valve shattered the pleasant image. Were he online, the Seeker wouldn’t be a nice, gentle, loving partner anyway, he thought, rather a raucous banshee with a bad attitude. Maybe it was better this way anyway. Not really, but he consoled himself with it.

His charge growing as he thrust into the tight, wet valve, Optimus haven’t stopped to bring the Seeker along, offline as he was, but he wouldn’t leave the mech unfulfilled if he could help it. His servos found the cockpit, and having heard that it was particularly sensitive in the inside, he teased the reinforced glass and the armour locks until they clicked open, giving him access to specialized flight equipment to play with. His guilt ebbed and rose in waves, alternating with pleasure, coming fore to swamp him until the next wave of charge washed it away.

The cockpit was truly sensitive, he could feel in the tightly spasming valve as well as the warming of his plating and the overworked vents dispelling hot air from his frame. They were both very close to completion, he noted with an increasingly hazy processor, when the unthinkable happened. The flight equipment moved to the side with a smooth slide and the chest armour underneath snicked open, the crack revealing a growing, golden orb’s light that started to cast its rays of light around in the darkness of the cave.

Optimus froze for a nanoklik. _Nononono…_ The thoughts that swirled around in his processor chaotically were of fear, elation, revulsion that he’d even think of a sparkmerge, but mainly amazement that the unconscious mech would give such an access to him. _Maybe he dreamt of being with his Trine-mates?_ That thought went on for maybe half a nanoklik before he realized that the light from his own spark would awaken the so far offline Seeker, dictated by the protective coding – and that would be extremely embarrassing, awkward, not to mention dangerous. 

The idea of Starscream, awakening in the middle of a rape and reacting predictably was more than what he could bear. Optimus had maybe the other half of said nanoklik to decide what to do, and he had spectacularly few options. Covering up the spark’s light would be one if he had anything nearby to use for that purpose. His servos obviously would not be enough, unless he was willing to possibly hurt the Seeker by holding them too close to touch the chamber. Closing the chest-plates was the other option, but aroused as the Seeker was it would mean forcing them close and therefore damage that he could hardly explain afterwards. 

So he choose the least optimal solution and keeping his own chest-plates locked, he covered the Seeker’s spark with his own chassis by lying flush on him. Optimus desperately hoped that his processor would hold out until he finished and overloaded both of them; that being the only way the Seeker’s spark chamber would close on its own. By this time, his own arousal dropped quite a bit from the elation and bliss he started out with – his current predicament started to seem suspiciously like the retribution that he’d been sure was to come after what he did. 

Desperately, he thrust into the Seeker again, while keeping his spark covered, to bring up his charge again. The spark started to affect him even through his own closed plates, helping him along with its throbbing, pulsing aliveness, with its clearly perceptible arousal that made its warmth felt even through the layers of armour. The worry and fear was starting to disappear again with his charge climbing back to its previous level. He’d have to finish a bit more carefully, but still he could…

But he lost it. The barely audible click of his own chestplates signaled his complete defeat against his own lust. _Noooooo…_ this, he truly didn’t want, did not intend, did not even dare… It just… happened. Optimus had neither time, nor consciousness to do anything against the merge, to move away or stop his own impending overload. He was well and truly lost.

The feel of Starscream in his spark as they merged was… unexpected. Previously, he thought that by merging with the mech he’d feel the same as the Seeker showed outwardly; his personality as he’d always known it. Maybe it was because of him being offline, maybe not; but the spark-merge showed him a completely different Starscream. The annoying bickering tempered to intelligent arguments, the paranoia into sensible caution, the treacherous backstabbing into competitive reaching for power, the recklessness into… well, it and only it stayed the same. 

He held out for so long, raising their arousal for several breems, that the klik his spark merged with Starscream’s he overloaded, barely having time to feel the merge, spurting his transfluid into the tightly spasming valve at the same time. He brought the Seeker along too into overload, feeling its echoes through the hazy depth of the spark-merge. He didn’t remember shouting out loud, but then there were no mech around to here, even if he was.

Slumping onto the mech, he panted heavily, noting that the Seeker did the same, expelling scorching hot air from his vents. He was glad to feel their sparks separating and the protective plates drawing back over them – and even gladder to see that his… well, no other word for it, his victim stayed offline throughout the experience, even the overload. That piece of coding must have been Pit-damned strong to keep him offline through a spark-merge.

Feeling terribly, devastatingly guilty again, Optimus Prime held on until he could safely rise on his still shaking servos and pedes. The growing guilt did nothing with the feeling that it was even better than he’d always imagined how it would feel. Those two fought for a while in his dim processor, before he could clear it from the post-overload haze and repress the feeling great part so deep as to be unable to find it ever again. The more his meta cleared the more his guilt grew. 

What he did was completely and utterly inexcusable and unforgivable. Having no witnesses and no other to know about it, it would be himself who would have to mete out the punishment – and he would do it, Optimus knew. How, he wasn’t sure yet, but he’d make up for the Seeker somehow and make sure that his runaway lust would not have the chance to harm him again. 

Pulling out of the Seeker’s valve, he was presented by a new difficulty, at least as far as he wanted his deed to stay a secret – the mess on their tights would be a dead sure giveaway upon being rescued and he just didn’t want to contemplate that scene. Not being a vain mech Optimus Prime didn’t carry polishing cloths on him that could be used to clear it up. Nor did the cave sport any organic plants with leaves to use for that effect either. He considered the dust for a while, but decided against it; sand-mixed-with-fluids pelvic plates would not be any less conspicuous than simply lubricant and transfluid-covered ones. 

That left one method, one that his meta whispered was half his punishment, half further reward… licking the fluids off Starscream. He did remember the taste of the Seeker’s lubricants, the only thing that made him hesitate was that it was inevitably mixed with his own transfluid. _There starts the punishment part, _the Autobot leader scolded himself,_ the first act of making it up for the Seeker. _

Leaning over the red pelvic plates – his memory banks supplying the colour again – he licked the fluid-splattered, still warm plates like he would a rust stick. It wasn’t as bad as he feared, the lubricant apparently outweighed the transfluid – at least on the outside. Employing his night vision to its fullest sensitivity to leave no place splattered he methodically cleaned the Seeker from the proof of his lust. At the end, he tilted the hips so the excess fluid could drip out and cleaning up that too, he pronounced the job well done and closed up his panel. He tried very hard to ignore his own, once again growing arousal. 

As for the scratches and paint transfers, he didn’t worry so much; their colouring was similar enough so it would not be suspicious even if Starscream found a stray streak somewhere. Besides they were both quite scratched and dented from their violent entry into the caves. Still, to make sure, Optimus spread some of the red dust on Starscream’s plating, including the cockpit area and rubbed it on lightly.

Once they both cooled down to design temperatures, there would be no way to discover his despicable act. With the action out of the way and the signs erased Optimus returned to fretting and soon increased it to soul-searching. _What was I thinking about, to do such a thing? How could I not withstand the temptation?_ It was frustrating to face to the fact that he was reduced to instincts around the object of his long-standing desire. Throwing away thinking and reasoning completely and succumb to lust was quite unlike his usual self.

Once sober again, Optimus didn’t dare to look at Starscream again. Huddling onto himself, he silently cursed himself, his lust, his recharge-dreams, the circumstances that tempted him beyond his endurance… even the Seeker for being so lascivious, so beautiful and so responsive to him. He’d fallen and fallen hard, Optimus knew. A few breems only but it ruined his morals, no matter that only Primus was the witness for it. The Matrix throbbed once in his spark-chamber, sharply, disapproving.


	5. Wake-up

A joor later he was a wreck. Blaming the circumstances was an empty exercise and he soon realized its futility. He was the only one to blame and nothing else – Optimus Prime was strong enough to admit it to himself finally. He also realized that blaming himself lead precisely nowhere. He did a great wrong and he would have to live with it. Make up for Starscream and do it in a way not to betray his secret, not to let it affect the war, his usefulness for the Autobot cause – it would be extremely difficult. Still, he’d have to do it. He couldn’t fail the Autobots who trusted him to be their leader, but as things stood he’d have to regain his moral standing first. If he ever could.

He had very little contact with the Seeker so far and that presented its special problem – it would be extremely dangerous if he suddenly went after the mech in any way or for any reason. He’d have to have a pretext first, an excuse to pursue whatever course of action he decided. Because he wasn’t sure of that either. Glancing back to the peacefully slumbering Seeker, he contemplated his reasons, the exact failings that led him to do this despicable act.

Yes, there was that old infatuation, the young and naïve dockworker, who looked up to – sometimes literally – to the beautiful fliers, while they were still free to do as they pleased, soaring beyond the rest of Cybertron in apparent superiority. They represented freedom, but more than simply being free – they were indomitable, bowing to no mech other than their own leaders. Starscream, being said leader bowed to noone until Megatron came and tamed the Seekers. 

They represented unsurpassed skills, beauty of form and movement, and that young and inexperienced mech that Optimus was back then admired them even as his co-workers usually disdained and derogated them for being war-builds, crude and unintelligent. He couldn’t believe it back then and he didn’t belittle them later either; that it was Starscream himself who thoroughly dispelled all doubts about their rumored stupidity helped nothing in his affection towards the mech. Still, as far as he remembered back to those orns, Optimus couldn’t evaluate it any more than a strong liking and an equally strong lust. 

Of course, as a newly minted Prime, he had quite bad experiences with the mech’s ruthless side too; hundreds of Autobots and uncounted neutrals fell when the famed and feared Air Commander choose to unleash his formidable fury on them. Back then he had no such problems with Megatron like later when he became the backstabbing, treacherous mech he was now and Megatron trusted him only as far as he could throw him – the curious human saying that was all too literally true in their case. 

Marveling at the Seeker’s might of course wasn’t much better than envying his mind and abilities. Still, he could hide it so well that not even his most observant officers – and he had many of that kind from Ratchet, through Jazz till Prowl… - noticed anything suspicious. It gave him the excuse of bringing the Seekers up at every meeting, it caused Jazz to spy out everything that there was to know about them and it excused him having at least half his attention kept on the Seeker in all battles – after Megatron of course, but still. 

Then, as Starscream changed and his relationship with Megatron changed, and the Seeker’s value lessened as well. He was still every bit as dangerous and cunning than before, but when he started to turn it against his leader, who in turn started to mistrust him, it meant that their collective military power just went down quite a few notches and his Autobots could breathe just a little bit easier too. 

It was hard to see his secret idol come tumbling down from its pedestal, to become something less, something treacherous, something more resembling to a poisonous snake biting one’s heels than a daring eagle soaring high above. It blessedly lessened his secret infatuation too, to a tolerable, hideable, manageable level. Had they met like this back then… Optimus wondered how he would have reacted then, but he was fairly sure that not like now. What changed it? And suddenly he remembered…

_Prisoner exchange. Neither side kept prisoners who didn’t have secrets and this kind of exchange became a regular thing over the vorns. So regular that Megatron couldn’t even be bothered to attend them personally, sending usually Starscream or Soundwave in his place. This time, it was the Seeker and much as the old feelings cooled, Optimus still looked over him appraisingly while they talked._

_Starscream has always been a vain mech, proud of his looks, his perfect finish and his white, almost angelic-looking wings. Megatron of course did his best to besmirch all those and rumour had it that the warlord was obsessed to the point of cruelty with those wings. But on that orn, the Seeker stood there in his full glory, unmarred, undented – and even his famous snark was softer than usual. The whole exchange had that rare feeling that they were just tired mechs on the different side of the war, but not enemies. It was almost… unreal._

_“Prime? Prime? Cybertron to its Prime, do you copy?”_  
 _He was flustered by having to be called out from daydreaming and by Starscream of all mechs…_  
 _“Sorry, Starscream. I… I got lost for a klik in a thought.”_  
 _“A credit for your thoughts Prime?”_  
 _The other mechs around looked at them oddly. Two mechs who tried their best to deactivate each other several times in the battlefield, having a friendly chat? It was just not done. But Optimus didn’t care about observers for this once._  
 _“I was thinking… I’m sorry, but you look uncharacteristically… normal this orn. Almost friendly.”_  
 _Starscream choked on his invent at that before staring at him strangely._  
 _“Well… I guess I had a good orn.” – he was almost visibly fishing for words before his expressive face froze and he just simply told the words he never forgot afterwards. – “I haven’t been beaten or raped today, Prime.”_

_Shocked as he was Optimus almost missed the small word whispered under his ex-vent ‘yet’. He didn’t even remember how the meeting ended, only that he stayed up all dark cycle, his memory banks replaying that sentence all over again, despite his best efforts to smother it in high grade. All his earlier feelings, the barely flickering embers of his infatuation, the remnants of his admiration, the ruins of his envy had all came back in force, driven by an almost obsessive yearning to be able to be the one to protect the Seeker._

Yes, he thought, back into the present, back into the cave, glancing over the faintly visible frame by the opposite wall; it was since then that his lust strengthened so much that given this opportunity, he could no more hold himself back than give up the Autobot cause. His processor gave a sharp throb as he realized how well he fouled up that wish to protect Starscream. How he did the very same thing that he hated and despised Megatron for. How he… used the Seeker like his brother did. 

 

Dropping his helm into his palms, Optimus all but whined. His processor was a battleground of conflicting thoughts and feelings that he could do nothing about, aching heavily from all that slag. How did he turn from a would-be protector into an abuser? He was so sure on that orn that given the chance and in the right circumstances, Starscream would be responsive to him, maybe even interested. That minute rapport they had promised so much. If only he could… sort of save him from that unhealthy relationship with Megatron – in a way that didn’t scream of helping him, because the proud Seeker would never accept that he needed saving. 

But he never found that way and in time he gave it up too. Convinced himself that the Seeker truly did not need saving from Megatron, because he somehow enjoyed being abused and in exchange backstabbing his tormentor. It calmed down that feeling of wanting to protect him, quietened his conscience and let him again his mechs to plot against him. It was necessary really, for the war. Or so he told himself, while he tried to keep a younger, more approachable, less treacherous Seeker’s picture in his meta. 

It was all a Pit-damned, tangled mess now, all those conflicting feelings and interests. On top of everything he seriously complicated his situation with what he’s done here. Even if Starscream’d never know about it, he cannot forget such an atrocity that he was capable of doing. And if he was a realist, it was unlikely to remain a secret forever – and how the Seeker would react then… Optimus didn’t even dare to contemplate that. No, it had to remain his secret forever. His secret, his shame.

Preparing himself for the eventual rescue, he calmed and collected himself. For the other mechs this episode should be nothing special, just a few random occurrences converging unfortunately, like the dust-storm, his distance from the others and the weakness of the rocky surface that dumped two mechs into the underground cavern. They would have no reason to suspect that he did anything else but boredly waited for them to arrive. He mustn’t give them any sign, any reason to think it was anything more.

Optimus Prime sat up straight, and presenting the expected picture, moved to a proper distance from a potentially dangerous enemy, keeping him in sight in case he awakened. Schooling his thoughts and emotions, thankful for small favors like facemasks, he contemplated long term plans while awaiting the promised rescue. What happened in the cave was carefully secluded in his memory banks, safeguarded and passworded so that no mech would be able to access it accidentally, or even by a shallow search, like Ratchet’s medical access.

“Optimus Prime? Can you hear me?” – his SIC could be trusted to be right on cue. The signal was also much better than before, telling clearly that he was closer.

“I can hear you Prowl, loud and clear. Are you digging us out at last?”

“Yes, Sir. We’ve solved the issues with the National Park’s establishment. What is your condition?”

“I’m perfectly unharmed, Prowl. Starscream is resolutely offline, some kind of a Seeker defense mechanism underground in the dark.”

“Good to hear it Sir. We’ll be at your location in three breems.”

“Be careful, Prowl; Starscream will probably online at the first sign of light.”

“Understood Sir. Do you wish to take him prisoner?”

“I don’t have stasis cuffs on me and I don’t want to fight with him when he awakens and finds himself underground. Let him go is the best course of action, I believe. He is not seriously damaged.”

“Understood, Sir.”

The next few breems went fast and Optimus refused to think of anything else but the impending rescue. As soon as the upper corner of the cave gave way to the digging mech with light seeping into the cavern, Starscream started to stir. Optimus kept to the other end of the cave as he knew that Starscream would be confused and probably aggressive after the enforced recharge and he didn’t want to fight with the mech right now, for a multitude of reasons. 

 

Starscream stirred with a hazy, foggy processor, clawing his way towards consciousness. He tried to recall what happened – was he in the med-bay after an episode with Megatron, or what? If so, that fragging Hook didn’t repair his wing right, as it was still sending damage reports to his HUD. Wait, no… he didn’t remember getting back to the Nemesis. There was the battle, yes and he noticed the dust-storm gathering and warned TC and Warp to it. Then… Starscream didn’t see who shot his wing but he did remember now the fall and the crash afterwards.

Not much else though. Hazy memories of the rocky ground giving way under his weight and then a lot of crashing, cracking, tumbling and rumbling… yeah, he’d fallen into some kind of an underground cave. After that… well, he moved a bit, but as the hole behind him closed and his scanners showed only an empty, closed, dark cavern, without any visible way out he started to panic. It was every flier’s worst nightmare to be trapped who knows how deep underground… but then suddenly all his memories ended, and only a notification popped up: emergency shutdown Code 12 Alpha.

He knew what that code was, not that he has ever experienced it. Emergency recharge to avoid the claustrophobic reaction. An eventual safeguard from his own nature, much as it shamed him to acknowledge it. So that much was clear… but what woke him up then? Starscream felt clear-processored enough to online his optics and check who’s found him, but the code still held him in its clutches, meaning that conditions were still not fully right to contain the claustrophobic reaction.

Starscream wasn’t fooling himself that any Decepticon would come to his rescue. Not even his Trine-mates, not here, underground. Certainly no mech else he knew of. And there was no reason whatsoever why the Autobots would search for him and dig him out. None. Being soft-sparked idiots didn’t cover seeking out a dangerous enemy who got swallowed up by the ground. But that left noone else, so… he’ll have to see then.

But Starscream couldn’t make himself truly wary, simply because he felt so good. It was strange really, now that he thought of it, languidly checking over his frame that almost… tingled? Now, why should he feel like he had been having the time of his life? Even his spark spinned contentedly in its chamber For some reason it reminded him the feeling after a dark cycle with TC and Warp spent with vigorous interfacing and cuddling afterwards. How strange to think of that right now… maybe they should do it after he got back. 

The code dissipated slowly, its blinking yellow light turned green and Starscream hurriedly dispelled all thoughts of interfacing from his processor – now, he liked to ‘face as much as the next Seeker, but it really wasn’t the time or place for it – and onlined his optics. The cave was flooded with sunlight, which was good, but it outlined several mech shapes, which was not. His battle systems coming online, he jumped to his thrusters, pointing his null-rays to them. He could sort out if any was friendly later. 

“Starscream, stop!” – the voice was that of the Prime, so they were Autobots. Starscream snarled, prepared to fire if any of them came closer. He should have known. His optics slowly recalibrating to light after the darkness started to identify the shapes. All Autobots and standing between himself and the source of that sunlight. Slag. He could fly if he had to, the damage report informed him. He’d only need some space.

“Starscream, we mean you no harm.” – The only reason he haven’t fired at them yet was him, the softest-sparked idiot of all, who could be almost trusted to behave honorably and let him go. He looked covered with the same reddish dust that settled on his own plating too, while the others were much cleaner – had he been trapped in the caves as well and they came to his rescue? It was possible, even likely.

“I do mean you harm if you won’t let me go!” – he warned them, not removing the sight of his null-rays for even a klik, even if it was an empty threat. He lacked energon to fire and fly away. They were simply too many in this small place to fight successfully with them and the cave distinctly lacked free space for a jet to maneuver.

“Don’t worry Starscream” – hahh… as if he’d worry! – “I don’t want to… ahem… take advantage of the situation. We have been both trapped here and now that the way is clear, you may go.” – he was a bit strange as he said that, Starscream looked at him suspiciously. Had he been anyone else, he’d have sworn that he hid a blush under that facemask. But dignified and majestic Optimus Prime didn’t blush, especially with no reason… right?

“What did you do to me…?” – he hissed low and dangerously – “Did you try to hack me for the secrets I hold?”

Fortunately he looked so shocked at the idea that Starscream almost believed that he might not have done it. Still, he’ll have to run a thorough search on his processor, once back to the Nemesis.

“No, no, nothing like that, I swear! I’d never…” – he stopped, looking for a nanoklik almost guilty, covering it up straight away with his ‘I’m the Prime’ face, but he said nothing more as he turned towards his mechs and moved out of his way towards the newly made opening. Instead it was his SIC, the unemotional Praxian who spoke up.

“You may go freely Starscream. We weren’t obliged to rescue you and we don’t have to listen to your accusations. In your place, I’d be thankful for the first and stop with the second.”

“I didn’t need rescue!”

“Stay here then, if you wish. We do have an obligation to restore this area to its original shape, so this cave will be covered again. You are certainly welcome to remain here.”

“Frag you!” – Starscream hissed and decided that he spent quite enough time among these Autobots. Transforming, he shot out of the cave, into the balmy, free air and open sky that soothed his nerves greatly. There was something that disturbed him about what happened there, but for the life of him, he couldn’t find out what.


	6. Tensions

Optimus observed his officers carefully for the next few orns, for any indication that would tell him that they found him or his behaviour suspicious. He felt like a con mech for it, ashamed that he’d betray their trust in him, even if he knew the reason for it and knew that it would not affect the war. Or at least he’d try his best so that it didn’t. But he noticed nothing out of order, which meant that they found nothing suspicious in his behaviour. Slowly, after some uneventful orns, he decided that the whole matter was forgotten at least by every mech else but him.

He continued to bury himself in work and avoid his mechs as much as he could. He was sure that he wouldn’t accidentally tell what he did, but the more perceptive mechs might notice something on his behaviour. Because he has changed. He was less sure of himself and constantly wracked by doubts whether he was still fit to be a leader and a Prime. The Matrix hasn’t helped since that single, disapproving signal, so he was on his own in this. Work was the way he tried to reassure himself.

“Prowl, have you noticed anything strange with Optimus?” – Jazz was in the SIC’s office, debriefing after a mission to the Nemesis. Prowl looked up at the unexpected question, gave the matter a few breems of evaluation and then shook his helm.

“I haven’t Jazz. Why do you ask?”

“He’s been burying himself in work these last few orns.”

“That’s hardly unusual. Not every mech in command is as lazy as you are with paperwork.”

Jazz snickered; this particular grudge has always been Prowl’s sore point that Jazz overlooked and ignored paperwork until it was forgotten and buried on his chaotic desk that he almost never used.

“Nah, ma mech, it’s different. Ah rephrase it then: he’s been working even more than usual. Ah hardly see him outside his office these orns.”

“We do have a lot of work, Jazz.”

“Ratchet’s been grumbling about him too.”

“Ratchet’s been grumbling about my workload too for as long as…” – he gave up enumerating the exact time and continued – “… I know him.”

“He’s right in both yer cases.” – Jazz was serious when he said that. It was more than his usual pestering their resident workaholics to take some time off; he’s already been at that point several times and it still went on. More so than usual in the Prime’s case.

“The war doesn’t let us to take vacations, Jazz.”

Instead of an answer, Jazz presented two datapads to Prowl without adding any comments. Skimming their contents, he realized what Jazz meant. The situation has just became just a bit more serious.

“He’s started to make mistakes.”

They were small mistakes, due to small failings of attention, easily noticed and corrected. But they meant that Jazz was right and Optimus Prime desperately needed some time off – before his mistakes grew in severity. 

“I’ll talk with him. Convince him to take it easier. Am I right that you’ve already tried…?”

“Yeah. Almost chewed mah helm off. He needs to be there, he needs to do his best and so on, blah, blah.”

“I see. I don’t want to threaten him with Ratchet but I’ll see what I can do.”

An orn later…

“Prowler, you are a miracle worker.”

“I didn’t say or do anything special. Probably just the same as you or Ratchet.”

“Ohh, but Optimus knows you… You don’t make idle threats.”

“But it means that you’ll have to take some of his workload, Jazz. Or…else.” – after all he didn’t make idle threats, and Jazz knew it. The saboteur’s sour faceplates were a testament to that.

Now, that he had an almost official order to stay out of his office and preferably the Ark for at least a few joors every orn, Optimus Prime could think about Starscream again. So far, he has done little of what he swore to do to make up for the flier; he didn’t give a go-ahead to Jazz’s plan to sabotage all the fliers with a clever little virus that Perceptor discovered, but his TIC didn’t really expect it either; it was a weapon that he never sanctioned before. Viruses had a way of mutating and being dangerous to the ones that wielded them too and Jazz was intelligent enough to see it.

He also conferred a bit with Ratchet, under the pretext of being worried about the twins and their Jet Judo. He said that it was far too dangerous for the results that it gave and Ratchet, always worried about the twins agreed completely. They agreed that they could use the frontliners in ground combat far more effectively. Prowl, when presented the argument by Ratchet said that he could always give more conventional roles to the twins in his battle plans, but on the whole he doubted that Sunstreaker would follow them in the heat of battles. They all agreed though that trying to keep them a bit more apart from their favourite targets would do them good. 

That was a start, Optimus Prime thought, although his conscience didn’t seem to let him up so far. He kept his stoic façade during the light cycles but when it came to the dark… there was a reason why he started to work so much. Whenever he lay down on his berth, his meta started to replay the events in that cave until he was all hot and bothered, not to mention wracked by guilt. The arousal, he could deal with. The guilt, he couldn’t. 

He kept thinking about the Seeker. How did Megatron deal with him after the lost battle and being away for orns? Unfortunately, he had little doubt about that. The Seekers weren’t seen even in their usual patrols that Cosmos of course always followed unknown to them. Optimus half wanted to send in some of his spec ops mechs to gain knowledge, but he couldn’t exactly reason the danger of such a mission when nothing special happened. 

For now he’d have to deal with not knowing about Starscream. Driving on his own on the mostly empty, night-time roads was a welcome distraction, even as he was scanning the skies every breem or so, but it didn’t let his meta dwell on those memory-bits at least. The appearance of the jets overhead consequently took him as no surprise – but after transforming enthusiastically and trying to comm them, he had to realize that it was a simple, human jet squadron. He was seeing Seekers everywhere…

Optimus Prime hid his face into his metallic palms and sighed a deep ex-vent, trying to calm down again. He couldn’t afford to fall into pieces. He had an obligation… well, no he actually now had more than one and not only for his Autobots. Even if he saw a Seeker over the mainland, even if it was Starscream… what would he tell him? What could he do that wasn’t suspicious?

 

Starscream returned to the Nemesis deep in his thoughts. The whole thing was… off somehow, like it didn’t go like to how things usually got between their factions. He was let go far too easily for one thing. The Seeker was more than aware of the fact that he was injured and completely to the mercy of an Autobot, even if it was their noble Prime himself. Even as the cave was opened up, they could have easily took him as prisoner – they outnumbered him and he was still underground, unable to utilize his flying to his advantage. 

And the Prime… he really behaved strange there. Usually, when they met in any semi-peaceful situations, he was always spouting his noble nonsense speeches while roaming his optics on his plating in a way he thought to be unobtrusive. Ohh, Starscream knew that Optimus Prime had a strange and well-hidden infatuation with him – or maybe not so strange as many other mechs had it too, even in his own faction. But he never went any further than feasting his optics on his frame and if anything Starscream enjoyed that kind of attention.

It wasn’t as though most mech stopped at platonic admiration. He had to fight off mechs quite literally who thought that Seekers were in general an easy lay and slutty Starscream especially so. The Seeker scowled darkly, knowing that those mechs started the rumours of him whoring himself for gains or power – they could do nothing else against him, so it was their petty revenge for Starscream saying no to them – oftentimes with his null-rays for extra emphasis.

But in that cave, the Prime almost… hid among his mechs, hasn’t even cast a glance towards him and he hardly spoke a sentence or two. Starscream was sure that something happened while they were in that blasted cave, but a careful scan of his processor revealed nothing suspicious. His firewalls and blocks were as strong and untouched as he could make them with no sign or cue of any mech hacking in. And what else would Optimus do? Nothing really. Although why he suddenly called him by that name invoking familiarity, he wasn’t sure. 

So, Starscream put the whole thing down to his nerves as he awaited the tower lift. He’d still have to face with Megatron, as he was AWOL for more than two orns and haven’t even bothered to call the Nemesis after he was freed from that stony prison. He felt his trine-mates’ vague unease in the bond as they tried to search for him after the battle as much as Megatron allowed it, but of course they couldn’t find him underground. He opened up the bond to let them know that he was alive, but he didn’t have time for anything else.

“Ahh. Starscream at last. You honor us with your presence. Care to tell your newest lies about it?” 

Fragging Megatron. No, cut that. He didn’t want to use that particular adjective right now. 

“Why, Mighty Megatron, I got back as soon as I could.” – hmm, that came out almost normal. Was he loosing his edge? – “It is not that I owe you any explanation after being left behind!”

“Only for disobeying my orders, you imbecile! It cost us the battle!”

“I thought that was because you got bested by Optimus Prime?” – oops, that might have gone too far. A servo tightened on his still sparking wingtip, making him scowl to cover up a painful grimace. 

“Careful, Starscream if you don’t want to be deactivated…” – Megatron was angry, there was no doubt about it. He suddenly saw Thundercracker shaking his head frantically behind the tyrant and he was sure something happened. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to provoke Megatron even more right now…?

“So, I was shot down by that slagging sniper.” – he scowled now openly as admitting so meant admitting weakness. – “It’s not that I’m the first mech he got downed.”

“And why were you there in the first place? You were ordered to cover Soundwave with the energon!”

Oops. It was true. But Skywarp got into trouble with the twins and Starscream valued his teleporting, idiot trine-mate more than the emotionless, sneaking telepath. 

“Nomech was even going near him and I was needed elsewhere.” 

“Your only luck, Starscream is that Soundwave did get back with the energon – no thanks to you. But you still disobeyed my orders!” 

With the last words, Megatron twisted the wingtip in his servo, forcing Starscream to the ground, if he didn’t want to lose that wing. A sharp hiss left his vocalizer as the appendage was ruthlessly twisted, while the other servo unerringly hit him in the faceplates, snapping his helm to the side and drawing energon. But the tyrant let his wing go after only a dozen or so hits, which from him was almost a leniency - Starscream hasn’t even started to grovel for mercy. Throwing him into the bulkhead halfheartedly, Megatron stormed off, leaving the two Seekers behind without a backwards glance. 

Starscream picked himself up from the floor, wincing slightly as the bent wing came into contact with the wall. He considered himself lucky for getting away with so little from the tyrant, but it would still necessitate Hook’s ministrations. Thundercracker finally dared to part from the shadows he was hiding in and came to help him up. Starscream considered a scathing remark about slagging, cowardly trine-mates, but surprisingly even to himself, he swallowed it back before he could say it aloud.

“He’s already punished Warp for it.” – Thundercracker knew just how unusual that was. Skywarp was generally one of Megatron’s favourites, when he wasn’t playing inconvenient pranks around. 

“Will wonders never cease…?” – he murmured finally, sharing the surprise. – “For what? His own mistake? Unbelievable.”

“Your signal disappeared underground. We thought you to be deactivated until you opened up the bond.”

“I fell into an underground cave which closed up.” – they both shuddered, sharing all fliers’ instinctive fear of such places. - “…and I got put offline by the code. How it judged the situation to be ‘safe’ what with being together with Optimus Prime, I don’t know.”

“He was there too?”

“Apparently. But I was offline until his mechs dug us out so I couldn’t know it before I onlined.”

“And has he… you know… done something?” - Thundercracker surreptitiously looked over his trine-leader’s frame, but of course after the punishment of Megatron and with the red dust coating, it told no signs of anything particular.

“I don’t know! My processor is intact, but he is no hacker anyway. I only had the injuries from the crash, nothing else. I don’t think he did anything.” – Starscream pondered a bit more and ended it with a somewhat forced laugh – “Maybe he was just ogling me the way he usually does.”

Thundercracker snickered once, Starscream has shared this tidbit with them before and the blue Seeker has since seen it with his own optics too. He found it both funny from the serious, noble mech and in a way queer too – himself, he couldn’t imagine ogling someone he considered an enemy and might kill one orn. Sure, Star was a good-looking mech and grounders always liked Seekers that way… and come to think of it Optimus Prime wasn’t bad as far as Autobots went.

Hook though was hmmm-ing quite more while he fixed Starscream’s surprisingly light injuries. There was a jump in the Seeker’s internal temperature that had no reason to come about and it irked the perfectionist medic. He could find nothing even as he scanned him deeper than a usual and all so often occuring put-him-together job would require. But he couldn't continue his search for long, because Starscream got annoyed with his fiddling soon, pronouncing the repair ready and storming out of the repair-bay to find his Trine-mates.


	7. It's a start

Collecting Skywarp from the brig and towing Thundercracker after him, the three Seekers sat down in the common room to refuel. Skywarp was still almost snuggling and affectionate – he really thought that Starscream perished when they couldn’t feel him any more. That was how he got into trouble with Megatron; he wanted to stay and find his trine-leader and actually talked back when Megatron ordered them back to the ship. Starscream was unusually accepting his mood, putting up with the sudden hugs with an indulgent calmness that surprised Thundercracker.

Nor was he above of using the sudden amiability of their usually irate and scowling trine-leader to the fullest. In the blue Seeker’s opinion, they bonded far less than they should have and any time Starscream was willing, he’d not let the opportunity to pass away. Especially now that they had to get over the frightful feeling of separation…

“Screamer…”

…despite of his idiot purple counterpart who seemed to be determined to foul Starscream’s mood. Thundercracker whacked the black helm lightly, glaring at him disapprovingly.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Uhh, sorry… Stars!” – Skywarp truly felt sorry, but the nickname was just far too good for Starscream and he’d always forgotten not to use it when they wanted him in a good mood. But Starscream, aside from the customary admonition, didn’t seem to mind him at all. More than that, he seemed almost eager…

“Come on, you idiot. It is almost written on you in bold glyphs that you want to ‘face.” – Starscream admitted himself that he too wanted that as well and he didn’t even have to look at TC to see his eagerness. He felt… tingly ever since he onlined in that cave and it definitely centered in his interface equipment. He let that feeling enter into the trine-bond, and… the three Seekers hardly even emptied their cubes before racing to their shared quarters. 

The mood, if anything just intensified once they got onto a berth and started petting wings and cockpits, kissing deeply in all combinations before, as usual, Starscream ended up in the middle of the sandwich of his trine-mates kneeling on the huge berth. In almost no time their panels were opened and spikes were rubbing together in delicious friction while the clawed servos delved into gaps and fondled ailerons. 

The room was echoing moans and hisses as Thundercracker and Skywarp caressed their trine leader, trapped between them and got it back from him. Usually, hard work from the two of them was needed just to get him to take part and enjoy ‘facing – understandable after some of Megatron’s harsher punishments, but they never talked about it. Just gave him gentle affection and hoped that it was stronger than the memories. But this time, Starscream was fully into the spirit of interfacing, more open and reciprocating than ever. 

They didn’t question his mood, didn’t wonder where it came from, just enjoyed that he could enjoy their ministrations too. Skywarp captured his mouth for a deep, neverending kiss, while Thundercracker played with the twitching wings and peppered light bites on his neck cords that he obediently revealed by leaning his helm to the side. His claws scratched their vents lightly, ghosting over plating and dipping inside the slats to draw deep, shuddering moans. The berth was splattered by lubricants that dripped freely from valves teased by spikes lightly, not entering yet, just rubbing onto outer nodes as they moved, undulating on the soft mesh surface.

“Warp!” – the shriek tore from Starscream’s vocalizer, for once not yelling in anger, but begging in need. Digits were not enough! – “…more!”

Skywarp laughed with a throaty, deep growl, his glossa half still in the wet, needy mouth of his trine-leader his servo pumping into the dripping valve, stretching it for them. 

“He needs more, TC. Should we comply? Or get the handcuffs out?”

But the clawed servo tightening on a purple wingtip answered him clearer than any words. Starscream was far too deep in his arousal to want any more playing or teasing. Growling deeply, he grabbed the purple and back spike until Skywarp too hissed and instinctly thrust forward. He had just enough time to glance at Thundercracker to coordinate and capturing the blue servo again they scooted closer and thrust into him together.

“Hgnhhh…!” – Starscream half shrieked half moaned his pleasure at being filled so completely. He needed this so much now, he wasn’t sure why, but it was better than ever in their long history as Trine and lovers for eons. He spread his legs even more to give them more space to move and grabbed Warp’s shoulder for the suddenly needed support to stay upright. He felt the hot air puffing onto his plating from TC’s vents and his deep, strut-shaking moan from behind. 

“S-so tight…” – Skywarp panted with his thrusts, keeping counterpoint with TC, madly fondling his ailerons – “So fragging tight, Starsss!”

Skywarp has always been the talker, even in interface. Dirty talker at that, while TC kept his almost deadly quiet, broken only his deep growls that shaded into moans every now and then. Starscream… well, he proved his designation when he was satisfied and produced half-believable moans for Megatron when he wasn’t. But he was far too aroused to think of their leader as TC and Warp filled him so wonderfully, so completely and brought his charge up until he could hardly remember said designation… 

“Trine…!” - resonated TC’s demand in the moans and shrieks-filled room as they neared their respective peaks. Three cockpits snicked open and moved aside. Protective plates slid open and the blue Seeker bent around Starscream to reach them too. Azure blue and dark purple servos steadied him and pulled closer, making the well-practiced dance to bring their spark-chambers close. Shuddering wings folded back in arousal and the intent to make the merge possible.

Their frantic pistoning of hips slowed to let the next phase begin. The spark-chambers opened slowly, making them all moan with the revealed energies so close, so tantalizing, so… so amazing. Trine bonding for all intents and purposes is a kind of a spark-merge. Not as deep, not as lastingly affecting, not as dangerous – but still deep enough so that none but Seekers know the difference. Bending together frames that weren’t designed to be that flexible the three brightly spinning orbs touched.

Moaning in perfect harmony the three Seekers felt each other as lovers and trine in the searing heat of passion. In their arousal, neither of them perceived the fourth shadow, the one who took no part in the merge but who was still there as a fleeting impression. The growing, almost peaking charge quickly covered up its presence there. A last thrust from two spikes, a last collision from the sparks and Starscream overloaded, his spasming, undulating valve tightening over their spikes, his spark exploding inwards to engulf them in its heat, shrieking without words to the heavens.

“Star…!” – twin yells, one higher, one deeper answered his overload, drawing them after him, thrusting deep and pumping his valve full of transfluid. The sparks’ lightshow went through a rainbow of energies floating among them, searing their systems all the way from chamber to thrusters. Starscream slumped forward onto Skywarp’s trembling frame while Thundercracker kept himself from the same mostly on willpower.

“Mmhmmm…” – he couldn’t be more coherent as he felt his trine-mates pull out, splattering the berth with fluids of every kind. His plating felt servos stroking them, Skywarp chuckling lightly at his snuggling and TC’s dark, deep laughter joining it. Starscream was adorable, almost cute after overload, much as they’d never dare to tell him that. Not that it needed to be said. Mindless of the fluids, the trine sagged onto the berth’s surface and snuggled until no observer could have told them apart, could see where one mech started and the other ended. 

Megatron, the war, a cave and all sorts of troubles were forgotten when they were as one.

-o-o-o-

A few orns later in the Ark an alarm shrieked its warning and roused mechs to their jobs…

“Autobots, roll out!”

They did. The Decepticons attacked a fairly far away power plant and no matter how fast they went, it would not be in time. That meant all sorts of complications, from human hostages and threats to their environment, till entrenched, well-defended Decepticon forces and all in all promised a long, hard battle with many casualties. But they could do nothing else, only strain their engines to be there as fast as they could. 

Joors after they arrived, they were still fighting a pitched battle. Slowly, as the conditions improved and Prowl’s battlefield tactic worked for them, they started to gain the upper hand, while the Cons started to fall into disarray. Megatron didn’t take well to have his seeming victory turned into a defeat – and lose even the collected energon in the process. His roar could be heard all over the battlefield as he was distracted from his usual dance with the Prime. 

When he ordered a retreat, the Autobots mostly vented a sigh of relief. Watching them warily as they took off, they saw Megatron stopping in a short distance and impatiently ordering Starscream to him. It was obvious for all of them what was to come, Megatron blaming his SIC for each and every defeat was as expectable as a clock tolling the hours. The Seeker was still mostly undamaged, aside from a superficial looking burn-mark on his fuselage. He landed in front of his leader, his faceplates already drawn into a scowl.

Megatron felled him with one blow, raising one huge pede to follow up with a kick when he was suddenly barreled over by a red-blue blur. Both armies watched in a shocked silence as Optimus Prime threw Megatron bodily a bit further away and battered his arch-enemy into the ground. The onlookers hardly even started to move when he finished as suddenly as he started and imperiously waved the Cons to continue their retreat – and take the offlined and clearly heavily damaged Megatron with them. No mech dared to argue with him. Starscream of course was long gone, using the opportunity to get away, only cast a strange, bemused glance backwards. 

“Ahh… sorry Optimus Prime, Sir, but… what the slag was that?” – Jazz was the closest mech and therefore he got the honor of asking the question first that was in the forefront of every Autobot’s processor.

“He was going to kick Starscream into that building there.” – Optimus pointed at the item in question. He cringed inwardly at the lie but continued valiantly, thankful of the face-mask once more. The small shed could hardly be expected to stay upright if a mech of the Seeker’s size crashed into it. – “The human workers hid there earlier.”

“And you saw it? Wow. Good work though with ole Buckethead… Ah always said that you were too kind ta the Slagmaker.”

“I couldn’t let him hurt the humans.”

“Sure, Boss, sure… Ah’m sure there was nothing else there…”

“Jazz...” – at Optimus Prime’s faintly annoyed expression, Jazz knew that it wasn’t the best time to joke with him. Not that he suspected anything, but the opportunity to poke him a bit was too great to pass up. Besides it was rare from him to send Megatron home offline, visibly in need of attention from Hook back in the Nemesis. 

 

When the next battle came, Optimus knew that he wouldn’t get away without being questioned if he repeated the same stunt. Therefore, he proceeded to beat Megatron into scrap before he could call a retreat, thereby preventing him to take out his frustration for the defeat on the Seeker. It was a good tactic, he thought, at least for awhile, protecting Starscream and at the same time doing good for the Autobot cause. He carefully avoided the thought of who deserved what, because he wasn’t sure he had any moral grounds any more to pass that kind of a judgment. 

Megatron was so used to their usual dance and his noble, honourable approach to their fights that it took him quite a few occasions before he realized that for whatever reasons, Optimus Prime’s style and attitude changed. A lot. Gone was the hesitation before pulling a decisive punch, gone was the indecision when he had the upper servo. These orns, Optimus Prime almost cheerfully beat him into the ground, leaving him offline almost every time. The slagger even enjoyed it, Megatron was sure.

Of course it was affecting the battles as well as the Decepticons’ attitude. They were all used to retreats that everyone was careful not to call defeats; but it was harder and harder when they had to carry their offlined leader back to the Nemesis on a regular basis and scrape their ornly energon with difficulties. What made it worse was that Starscream and his slagging Trine was successful in stealing energon stealthily from the Humans and even Megatron knew that blaming his Second and beating him when he was basically feeding them was unadvised. Soundwave as much as told him that he’d have a rebellion on his servos had he done that.

But it didn’t mean that he wasn’t planning revenge – on Optimus Prime and on his backstabbing SIC too. In the next battle, he sent Bruticus against Optimus Prime and while the huge combiner busied itself with the Autobot leader, he proceeded to scrap the rest of the Autobots. It was galling him to admit that he couldn’t keep up with his arch-enemy, but until he uncovered the reason for the Prime’s sudden aggressiveness, he’d rather avoid being slagged again before he regained his edge.

It worked for a change and they could scrape a victory for once and enough energon to last them a bit, enough time for Soundwave to do some spying on the Prime. During the battle though, he noticed something strange. Starscream was on the ground, landing after a minor hit to his wing, so he could bend the aileron back to working position. Two of the Autobots were approaching him from behind, getting ready to ambush the preoccupied Seeker. That was when Megatron noticed Optimus Prime pausing in his desperate defense against the combiner and clearly ordering the Autobots away, to the other end of the battlefield.

It was possible that he didn’t see what his mechs were planning, but Megatron rather doubted it. So why preventing his mechs to attack an enemy? Was it possible that he had a reason to do so? If yes, then what was it? It was too far-fetched to be an elaborate tactical decision, a ploy of some kind, a bait for… for what? Could his treacherous Second be a real traitor, working secretly for the Autobots? It’d certainly explain how he could get energon when the whole army could not. It was more than a little suspicious and Megatron’s always present paranoia was fully woken up.

But he also knew Starscream intimately enough to somewhat still doubt in his own theory; the Seeker certainly aspired to power and his position as leader, but he never before tried to betray the Decepticon cause that he too believed in. Still, it was enough to order Soundwave to put Starscream under careful surveillance, so if he did try to turn a traitor, they could get to know it in time.


	8. Downhill

Starscream enjoyed functioning lately, so much so that he couldn’t remember having such good times virtually since the beginning of the war. The Slagmaker was put to his place by the suddenly aggressive Optimus Prime who miraculously sent Megatron into repair-bay after every battle lately. That also meant that he was escaping from the usual punishments that used to come after defeats; Megatron was unable to beat him up after they got back to the Nemesis and couldn’t very well blame the Seeker later either, since every mech saw how he lost against the Prime time and time again. 

They were lucky too, when on one simple patrol Skywarp – of all mechs - spotted a place that was so automated that it barely had any humans guarding it and an orn later, emboldened by their earlier luck, the Seeker Trines snuck into that power plant at night. They flooded the whole facility with gas to knock out the human guards, Starscream scrambled the computerized defenses and without a battle or even just shooting a null-ray, they stole more energon that ever in one attempt. The Autobots didn’t even show up before they were all gone and back to the Nemesis.

Since so far their defeats meant severe energon rationing and threatened them with starving even, the huge success and the consequent party made them instantly popular among the Decepticons. That is, popular except with Megatron who was extremely annoyed by having been bested by his arch-enemy, by not being able to work out his frustration on Starscream and finally by having to put up with his Second supplying the whole army instead of his plans succeeding. But if Starscream was honest with himself, Megatron’s pouting just made his mood even better. Finally, mechs were starting to see what he’s always said; had he been the leader of the Decepticons, everything would be better. And he didn’t even have to say it aloud this time!

And on top of everything he started to receive gifts. At first it had almost freaked him out, it was so out of the norm for the Decepticons to find unexpected boxes on his recharge berth and not even exploding ones. He’d thought them to be baits to ensnare him some way – but they invariably proved to be innocent. Then he thought them to be bribes from someone wanting a favor from him – but as no mech came to him with any requests, this idea too was discredited. His trine-mates denied knowing anything about the gifts that with time grew in value and seriousness as well.

It all started with a box of energon goodies, his favourite kind at that. Later it included expensive waxes and paints, light but tasty high-grade, just as he liked the stuff; crystals and rare kinds of wing decoration, obsolete even in Vos since the passing of the Golden Age and Starscream just couldn’t understand how any mech could know that he used to wear thing like these… even Skyfire haven’t seen him in the Vosian court because it was before their friendship. So he kept trying to find out the source of the gifts but whoever the mech was, he covered his tracks well.

Why did he stay anonymous, he couldn’t understand either. The gifts by this time elevated to the level of courting, or at least he’d’ve called it such had the unknown mech revealed himself. Had he come forward, Starscream was sure that he would have taken it at least with restraint, but more likely favourably. Gifts and courting was after all a proper way to approach a mech of his standing. Even though he wanted no mate, courting certainly tickled his vanity, his self-respect and his fancy. Simply put: he was burning to know who the mech was.

Even his Trine would at least consider it, protective as they were about him. That TC and Warp was a couple was no secret in the Decepticon army, and it only included Starscream in the Seeker Trines’ way, not the mate kind of relation. But even with the both of them keeping a constant lookout for the bearer of the gifts, the mech proved elusive. It made them all the more curious and eager to guess his identity. Such a clever mech… who could it be? Starscream started evaluating his comrades, but so far none came up as likely culprit.

 

“Just give me something Soundwave, an answer! It’s impossible that nothing changed and you know it! He is totally different!” – Megatron was so frustrated and out of sorts that Soundwave was tempted to call it begging for an answer, not that he had any intention to say so aloud. The warlord didn’t like his initial report either as in all honesty it didn’t include anything useful or outright answer to his problem.

“As you wish, Lord Megatron.” – he answered finally, resigned to have to send back his cassettes for additional spying. He didn’t expect to find a singular reason for Optimus Prime’s change in attitude, but he knew that Megatron wouldn’t accept that answer. 

“And do it fast, Soundwave.” – there was a threatening tone in his grumbling voice, so rarely directed at the TIC that he was surprised and a little cowed by it. 

“At once My Lord.” – he bowed deeper he’d normally do.

“What about Starscream?” – Megatron knew that the telepath would report anything suspicious about his SIC but he couldn’t stop asking still.

“Starscream: behaving normally. Receiving gifts: courting intent presumed. Origin presently unknown. Starscream: busy searching culprit.”

That was interesting enough to draw Megatron’s attention away from his own problems. True, he saw his Second less than usual and even his provocative-insulting screeches were more or less absent. It was also reassuring that he wasn’t exhibiting real traitorous tendencies, but… courting? Who among his Decepticons would dare to court the aptly named Starscream and why at this point? He never laid a distinct claim on the Seeker, but every mech should at least suspect that he was fragging him, unwilling as it usually was from Starscream’s part. The mystery of this was enough to draw his processor from his more important problem and give it a much needed respite. 

“Any idea who dared to do that?” – Megatron wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Something like jealousy rose in his processor, battling with his denial that he’d feel anything for the Seeker. No, it was just… just about his treachery as usual. 

“Negative at this time. Several suspects. Betting pool: currently favours Ramjet or other Seeker.”

“I can hardly believe that your little freaks haven’t seen whoever it was to deposit the gifts.”

“Gifts: delivered by proxy.”

“Who is that?”

“Swindle. Already questioned. Orders made: through internet, anonymous. Tracks: covered well.”

“So somemech apparently gone into great lengths to hide courting Starscream…” – so whoever he was he didn’t dare to come out openly. But in time he’d have to… and Megatron was more and more sure that he didn’t want to see his favourite plaything taken away, having a new ally and be protected by it – in time maybe even plot against him. No, he definitely didn’t like the idea of Starscream getting a mate for several reasons. But for all that he didn’t think it was Ramjet – there was no question that the mech has challenged Starscream at least once but that was for rank, not mating, if he understood these idiotic Seeker customs well. Not that he had any better ideas. For one reason or other, no mech was really what he’d point at as likely for courting Starscream. And Megatron didn’t like mysteries, didn’t like to admit that there was something he knew nothing about. 

-o-o-o-

Optimus Prime enjoyed delving deep into the memories of Teletraan, unearthing records that he was sure no mech looked at for millions of vorns. Even he wasn’t sure when he began the search that their computer contained anything about Starscream and Vosian customs, but to his surprise the topic was well documented and full of useful information, down to even the Seeker’s personal characteristics and tastes. The latter was probably the result of scores of spec ops mechs throughout untold vorns trying to solve the puzzle that was the Decepticon Air Commander. He wasn’t complaining though, as it gave him interesting tidbits like what kind of energon treats he liked or what polish he used.

Just as a curiosity, he checked what Teletraan knew about Megatron and found that file both similarly exhausting and accurate too as far he knew from personal experience. His brother apparently didn’t change much since they knew each other more closer. Once again, Optimus Prime was amazed by what work his seemingly easygoing spec ops mechs put in the war effort. But he wasn’t interested in that particular file… he gave up on Megatron becoming normal again long ago. Starscream’s file though gave him several ideas for gifts with varying difficulties as to obtaining them.

It was a bit harder to work out how to give Starscream those presents, but he had two factors on his side. One was the anonymity of the human internet, which together with their own kind of firewalls and encoding was virtually unbreakable and offered him a perfect, secure connection. The second was something he only heard about so far but after a few, cautious tries it proved to be reliable – greed was apparently a stronger force than ideology, causes or even naked threats.

For Optimus Prime was sure that had Megatron got wind of the fact that Swindle was doing regular business involving Autobots, he would have reformatted the mech on the spot. With his fusion cannon. Even he was tempted to give Sideswipe a long stay in the brig and he knew that the red mech wasn’t doing anything truly dangerous, no matter how Red Alert would take the matter. But since he was going to utilize the same connection, it didn’t feel fair to punish the mech for something that he, too wanted to do.

Not that he gave away his identity or even his affiliation – that was the internet for as an intermediary, to hide him from both his contact and his own Autobots. Swindle should only know the intended target to deliver the gifts on his way and refer their effect on the Seeker. Which he did surprisingly reliably, affirming what Sideswipe said about the mech – business for him was quite literally above anything else. It still gave him occasional twinges of guilt, to have secret dealings with a Decepticon – but he justified it for himself that it was entirely personal and in no way affecting the war. 

It bothered him too that with time he got better with his subterfuge and became better in hiding things from his mechs. At first he got some strange looks from his main officers, mostly Jazz whom he considered the likeliest to ever discover his secret, but those seemed to disappear in time as he acted like nothing happened. The guilt never disappeared, not even with everything he did to make up for his deed and it worried him. More and more he realized that it would never disappear until he admitted it to Starscream and gained his absolution. However that first thought terrified him and however unlikely it’d be to have the Seeker forgive him…

-o-o-o-

“Lord Megatron.” – Soundwave approached his leader in the Command Center while only some drones were around. – “Report prepared.”

Megatron took the datapad and skimmed its contents. By the end of it, he was severely frowning, so much so that the telepath surreptitiously moved a step away from the throne.

“This makes no sense Soundwave! I expected more from you!” 

“Laserbeak: saw Optimus Prime perusing Lord Megatron’s file…” – he tried to explain, but Megatron wasn’t having any of it.

“If you try to say Soundwave that he found a weakness in that file that he could exploit… don’t.” – he growled and his free servo tightened into a fist on the armrest of the throne. Soundwave saw it beneficial to make a further step backwards and lift a placating servo. He felt acutely that he was more or less emulating Starscream’s frame language from similar situations. The worst thing was that he actually did think that the matter was just like he alluded it in the report, but didn’t dare to say it after Megatron’s warning. 

“Weakness: negative. Optimus Prime: emboldened by find: possible.” – the save was lame and he knew it. They both knew it, but Megatron gave him far more leeway than he ever did to Starscream. – “Optimus Prime: perusing Seeker’s file as well.” – he threw that in as an interesting but inconsequential tidbit but it seemed to catch Megatron’s interest more than it was worth. In Soundwave’s opinion any commander should and could examine their enemies’ files for anything worthwhile to use those against them and so it was perfectly normal to do so. But apparently Megatron, always obsessed a bit by the Seeker found it suspicious.

“And you haven’t found it worthy of including in the report…?” – he growled again, his processor whirring as it tried to connect dots, some of which only existed in his meta. Maybe he should confront the Seeker with it, beat the answer out of him? – “Can Starscream be… consorting with an Autobot? You haven’t found who gave him the gifts, right?”

“Negative, Lord Megatron. Starscream: not observed in answering.”

“Or you just haven’t found how he does.”

“Possibility: exist.” – it felt insulting to have his expertise questioned and Soundwave answered in a bit drier voice than usual. That his telepathy didn’t work with Starscream didn’t mean that his intelligence methods were ineffectual as well. 

“Where is that imbecile now? Shouldn’t he be on duty?”

“Starscream’s shift: exchanged with Thrust. Starscream: currently out, flying.”

“Where has he gone? Are you following the route he took?”

“Affirmative.” – Soundwave knew what the question hid; it was no idle enquiry. He expected it and therefore the Seeker’s route was meticulously logged in the Nemesis computer. Calling it up, the TIC pointed it out to Megatron without wasting more words. So far it was exactly as expected, Starscream not deviating from it unduly. But just as they watched the line drawing the expected course over the ocean, it curved away suddenly and a data packet came through – the Seeker reporting a small anomaly over the mainland and deviating from the course to investigate.

It was nothing suspicious, at least for Soundwave who saw it all too often; about half the patrols had to investigate something that mostly turned out to be totally uninteresting and normal in source. Not for Megatron though. To his already overworking processor, with all the suspicion adding up against his SIC, along with the everpresent paranoia, it was the last straw that tipped the scale. Growling loudly, he mentally connected all the salient points in Starscream’s case, from Optimus Prime saving him from his all mechs, till the mysterious presents that had no source and came up with an answer that claimed loudly of the Seeker’s guilt. 

“There is that contact you’ve been missing, Soundwave.”

Megatron didn’t wait for his TIC to answer or react in any way. He was out and on his way to catch up with the unsuspecting Starscream in kliks. Soundwave would not warn the Seeker, that much he was sure, and no other mech even heard of the exchange. Not even his trine-mates would save Starscream this time from a thorough questioning.

 

Starscream was flying his usual patrol, wondering quietly about the identity of his suitor when a blip warned him of a suspicious radiation source just beyond the nearby coast. Sticking to protocol, so as not to anger the already frustrated Megatron, he sent a databurst to the Nemesis, to explain why he’s gone to investigate, before changing course and flying towards the coast. It was a bright, warm morning with calm winds, so Starscream truly enjoyed the flight.

Arriving closer, he scanned the source, even landed to observe it, but it remained just a naturally occurring pocket that his sensitive equipment detected from afar. Preoccupied by the scientifically still interesting natural phenomena, he didn’t notice the other jet landing behind him, only when it transformed and snarling loudly, Megatron grabbed him by a wing and threw him on the ground. For a split nanoklik he was confused, not expecting him to be out there and act so viciously, but Starscream recovered quickly.

“What the frag are you doing!?!” – he screeched, squirming to get his wingtip out of the painfully strong grip, sure that for once he was totally innocent of anything that could enrage Megatron so much. – “Let me go, you rustheap… ohh, forgive me, Mighty Megatron!”

That earned him a fist into his cockpit, the tough plasteel spiderwebbing with cracks, the force of the hit reverberating into his spark-chamber, spasming with a special kind of pain in itself. The second punch whipped his helm backwards, drowning the start of a yelp into static.

“Mind telling me Starscream, who are you consorting from the Autojerks?”

Starscream’s processor whirred uneasily at that – the question was one he didn’t expect, therefore he didn’t have an answer for it either. He gaped bemusedly at Megatron, the totally wrong accusation temporarily muting him. When he didn’t answer though, the tyrant punched him into the face and cockpit again, until the latter broke and his frame was showered in millions of tiny gold glass shards, his spark again giving a very sharp, painful throb.

“I… I haven’t! I don’t! Noone!” – his voice was even more staticky and rasping than usual, but Starscream finally collected his wits and hurried to assure Megatron that this accusation was completely false. 

“Don’t lie to me! You are courted by an Autobot, admit it!”

“No! I… I don’t know who is sending the gifts!”

“Liar! You’ve just came here to meet him, I know!” – every word was accompanied by a hit and Starscream started to seriously worry. The fragger was serious and he couldn’t convince him of his innocence… well, he never could really. Tough it out was his only chance and hoping that Megatron didn’t want to deactivate him.

“I swear I’d never… aaargh…” – he choked on his words as the tyrant grabbed his neck, while punching him with the other servo relentlessly. – “pleas… ahhh… don’t…” 

“Traitor! Imbecile! Weak! Backstabber! Autobot whore!” – every word meant one more hit now and Starscream had no more strength to speak, to beg or to scratch his plating even. He was thrown to the ground and a vicious kick sent him into the rock formation, he’d been examining earlier. It shattered on impact but something gave in his shoulder too, leaving his left arm dangle limp and unresponsive. He tried to crawl away, but Megatron was on him in a klik, lifting him by a wing, claws curling into the sensitive metal, twisting and shredding it to tatters. Starscream found that he could still scream after all. 

He kicked out but his thruster barely dented the silver plating and he paid for it by the wing twisted even more until the hinges creaked ominously, the wires stretched burning to their limit… and with a sharp snap the whole thing tore. His back was on fire as the wing was torn off, cables snapped and whipped with a backlash, energon poured down on his back and sensors fired pain signals all over his meta. Starscream fought with the blackness threatening to swallow his processor and frantically sent commands to shut down the main energon lines leading to the wing, so as not to bleed out in kliks. He could do nothing with the pain though and it wasn’t even over. He still had one wing left after all.

Probably not for long, he thought dazed. He still felt the hits that slowly shredded his chassis and curled into a ball to protect his spark-chamber. He’d survived such beatings, he would survive it now too. If the tyrant wanted to deactivate him, he’d have started with the fusion cannon, so he had some chance to get through it alive still. Even in the midst of the pain, he felt the other wing to be torn of messily and spreading its special kind of agony into his overtaxed systems. He wasn’t sure if he was still screaming, the world started to wash together into a colourful haze where he only perceived the silver shape and the pain it caused. 

Starscream thought that his audials must have been hit too, because even at this point of the beatings, he usually understood Megatron’s insults. But this time, the sounds seemed to merge with the colours and create a meaningless cacophony where pain still took the lead role. After an indeterminate amount of time which he couldn’t measure, the pain leveled out, making him cautiously hope that it was over. Starscream tried to assess the level of damage and convince his optic center to allow him to check on his surroundings, to see if the tyrant was still around. His left optic was a lost cause, broken completely, but the right one still had some measure of response to it. By directing his self-repair to it, he could in time unshutter it and try to have a look around.

Megatron wasn’t visible immediately and Starscream thought that he must have left a bit earlier – or stopped with the punishment anyway. The first would mean he was abandoned until he could repair himself enough to fly back to the Nemesis – if he could, but he refused to think of the alternative - while the second meant more pain as soon as he showed signs of onlining. Megatron never beat him while offline, as he felt it wasteful to lavish pain on him while he couldn’t feel it. So he was careful of showing any sign of onlining aside from the powering up of his still working optic and the sensors he could still feel. 

There was no sign of him nearby and Starscream breathed a small sigh of relief. He survived another of the tyrant’s ‘episodes’ and now it was up to him to find out if he could survive the abandonment alone, injured in enemy territory. He started to take stock of his injuries and that was when the terrifying knowledge came… neither of his servos were operational enough to carry out repairs. The left arm was off his system map completely and he remembered the rock that probably crushed the whole shoulder assembly. The right servo was torn off, fairly clean, so he could have reattached it… if he had an appendage able to do so. He fought awhile to do the work by holding the servo in his mouth, by trying to do the connection with his denta but he was not succeeding in it.

Primus, he was so scrapped. The shoulder was beyond the ability of his self-repair and so was the torn servo. The rest of him wasn’t any better and to do repairs, he must have at least one working servo. He fought for it for the best part of the orn – of course the slagger Megatron crushed his comm too – but at the end he wasn’t any better off than at the beginning. Movement was out of question either. He could crawl a bit but he’d have to cover dozens of miles even just to reach the ocean and what could he do then? 

On top of the pain cursing through his frame at every movement, he was still losing energon. Apparently his self-repair hasn’t found all the torn lines, which was too bad as he had no energon on him whatsoever. TC and Warp wouldn’t start looking for him for at least another orn and with the energon loss he couldn’t stay alive so long. He wracked the damage reports for all the leaks, locating and ruthlessly locking them down one by one by focusing the self-repair on them directly. He’d rather lose a leg than miss a torn line and continue bleeding out until deactivation. 

In half a joor he managed to get the bleeding down to a minimum with which he could stay online for hopefully another orn. His energon usage was still higher than it should be with so many systems either scrapped or turned off deliberately and he swore to teach Hook the full meaning of regular medical checkups. The fragger should have located the source and optimized it without being told. 

Delirium started to set in after three joors. The place was just past the middle of the day cycle and the ambient temperature continued to rise. With as much self-repair as he could manage without a servo he had nothing to do but let his systems do the job. The only problem was that his vents were somewhere way down on the self-repair queue and he started to overheat. His plating was torn enough to provide ventilation, but the desert wasn’t very cooperative in cooling wind or temperature lower than boiling. 

He started to see small figures and Starscream desperately hoped that they were not real. To fall into human hands would be not only utter humiliation but his sure deactivation in the hands of the little beasts. He had no doubt what they’d do with him this way, unable to defend himself, half scrapped and alone. Then he started to see various things, induced by the heat that rose beyond the optimal range for his processors, actually threatening it with serious damage. He didn’t want to be processor-damaged, even less than be deactivated by meatbags. Starscream fought back. He crawled until he was next to a rock which cast a little shadow on his helm, helping to lower the heat in his circuits a little.

He wasn’t aware that he was clutching his spark-chamber with his servoless arm, shielding it from the outside world, groaning as it gave irregular throbs and sharp licks of pain on top of what he continually felt. He wasn’t aware of the fact that his broken parts and torn bits were spreading over almost a square mile, clearly visible for the routine patrol of Human jets coming near to his position. He didn’t know about one of the pilots calling the Autobot base about a scrapped, plane-like thing just behind the coastline. He had no way of knowing that Optimus Prime got that call and ordered his rescue.

Starscream thought that Skyfire and the other mechs whom he though that he saw were just random memory bits, brought forward by his overheating memory banks and energon-starved processor. Not that he’d have the strength to struggle when Ratchet leaned over him cursing or when he heard Optimus Prime ordering the twins to collect the bigger pieces they could find and load them into Skyfire. Only Ratchet heard the desperate quality in the voice of the Prime and he didn’t have time to ponder on the cause.


	9. Slag hits the fan

Optimus Prime was devastated. Wracked by guilt, chastised by his conscience, brought low by his inability to protect Starscream still, he was about to give up the whole slagging subterfuge and break down completely right where he was. It was fortunate that he was in alt mode, driving closer in speed to what Sideswipe and Sunstreaker usually did than what was recommended for a big truck, even a Cybertronian one. It was kind of unadvised to have a mental breakdown when in alt mode, doing two hundred miles an hour. Skyfire and his passengers would be at the Ark before he could get back anyway, but it didn’t mean he wanted to lose a single klik of seeing the Seeker. The twins with him didn’t mind the speeding but their bond was full of wondering what exactly has bitten the Prime to suddenly disregard road rules. 

Not that he’d tell them. Optimus Prime pushed himself a bit more, squeezing out some more speed from his labouring engine when he had to suddenly swerve to avoid a collision and it took all his focus to stay on the road. It calmed him down considerably; he’d done enough wrongs so far but to threaten innocent human lives was simply unacceptable. Slowing down slightly, he became aware of his surroundings once again and calmed down a bit. The two Lamborghinis accompanied him now from the two sides, like unobtrusively protecting him and also everyone else. 

“Not to disturb you Prime, but what made you so mad? Starscream?”

He vented a few times before daring to answer and he hoped that his voice would not crack under the pressure. 

“I have no doubt that it was Megatron doing that to him. I’m… I’m always disturbed how much my brother changed.”

“But the Screamer probably deserved it… right?”

“I wouldn’t dare to judge who deserves what and I carry the Matrix.” – Sideswipe looked at his twin, bemusement clear in their bond. Optimus was famous for having more complex ethical spark-aches than the rest of the Autobots put together and the frontliners never much cared about those. But he continued – “Do you get beaten within an inch of your lives if you disappoint or displease Prowl? Or me?”

“Well… they are Decepticons.” – Sunstreaker would have shrugged, had he not been in alt mode. But he made do with the tone. – “Screamer had chosen to be a Con and remained so for eons, despite of Megatron’s punishments.”

“Not all choices are easy… I can’t tell why he chose that way but I still can’t condone what is done to him. It is sick. Megatron is sick.” – he didn’t dare to say any more and even this much was betraying his concern far too much. The hidden thought that the Seeker was violated again and not ‘just’ beaten. He couldn’t face that thought even in his own processor. 

“Why do you defend him Prime? He’s just a Con. A treacherous, backstabbing, annoying one I might add.”

If he could answer that question, things would be clearer to himself as well, Optimus mused inwardly. Not that he could voice his doubts.

“Things are not always black or white, Sideswipe. An enemy is seen as bad, but do you think he considers himself all those things? Or his Trine?”

“I guess not. But he still is, right?”

“I’m not sure. I can certainly understand his hatred of Megatron and his attempts to take over his faction.”

“He should leave the Cons if he hates them so much.”

“But he believes the cause, only not its leader any more.”

“Decepticons have no cause. They just love creating chaos and destroying things.”

“That is where you are wrong. Megatron’s original ideas were good and could have bettered our society. He just went about them in a wrong way. Starscream retained more of those tenets than any other Decepticons.”

There was a few kliks of silence among the three vehicles, still tearing down the road with dangerous speeds. Optimus distinctly felt that the two Lamborghinis somehow glanced at each other before reacting, although it was quite impossible in alt mode with himself between the two.

“Not to question you Optimus Prime, Sir, but… how do you know this?”

Ooops. He drove into this trap so easily that Optimus was ashamed of himself.

He mumbled something along the lines of having met and talked occasionally with the Seeker during negotiations, but he could feel that the twins were not exactly accepting his rather lame explanation. He was rather fortunately saved by arriving to the Ark, where he could send them on their way, while he hurried on to check on Starscream in the med-bay. Ratchet apparently wasn’t happy about having to piece together a Seeker if his stance and grimace was any indication…

“Remind me Prime, why am I doing this?” – he scowled without looking up from his work somewhere deep inside Starscream’s chassis. Optimus could have sworn that he had optics on the back of his helm too. – “Why couldn’t we leave him to deactivate there? It shouldn’t have taken more than another joor and we wouldn’t be implicated in it.”

“I couldn’t do that Ratchet. You know it.”

“I know that you have a vested interest in Starscream. I don’t know what exactly, but were you anymech else, I would call you pining for him.”

Optimus couldn’t answer to that for nearly a breem and spluttered without words. Was he that transparent? So far he’d thought that he hid his affection admirably, but was it all for naught? If the medic saw it that easily, then Jazz or Prowl too must have…

“Ohh, don’t glitch on me…” – he heard Ratchet’s exasperated voice – “I thought you could take a joke but in some matters you are apparently worse than Prowl.”

“Ratchet…” – his voice was still faintly trembling. Optimus reset his vocalizer and tried to continue, but Ratchet interrupted him again. 

“I know, I know. It is the right thing to do and all that slag. I don’t have the patience to listen to your speech, so kindly let me work on him in peace. I will let you know when I finished and he is in the brig.”

“A-all right.” – he was actually glad to have escaped the med-bay with his dignity more or less intact. Starscream looked bad on the repair plinth, almost as bad as he did lying by that rock – but if Ratchet was snarking then he was not in danger of offlining. Optimus was almost glad that he didn’t have to watch the Seeker’s mangled frame and sparking parts. He felt bad enough without the visible reminder that he had failed protecting the Seeker… yet again. And beside Ratchet joke, he suspected that the walls protecting his secret were crumbling. His behaviour has changed, he knew that and Jazz or Prowl, or possibly the two of them together had to have been blind not to notice it. 

And now the frontliner twins caught him at an unexplainable blunder. It was only a matter of time before his mechs started to put two and two together and his secret was out. But at least he can talk to Starscream in a little while, albeit he wasn’t sure what to tell the Seeker. But having some energized bars between them when he told him about what happened in that cave might be a very good idea. If he was going to do that at all... by this time it wasn’t enough to watch Starscream from afar and worry about him every orn, every battle to be safe. He wanted the Seeker on his side, able to see him ornly, able to court him properly. 

But he was sure that if his secret came out, Starscream would hate him forever, not to mention trying to kill him. Hence the presents, the attempt to court him as much as he could and admit his sin later, in a more amiable, more forgiving mood. Now, to continue that and protect him from Megatron, he’d have to convince him to stay with the Autobots, but with what? He knew that Starscream still believed the Decepticon cause, because he saw it in his spark. He knew that the Seeker had a deep-seated hatred of the Autobots, stemming from what happened in Vos. The only reason he could give him would be to escape Megatron’s abuse, but he’d endured that for ages. 

He fretted for long joors, well into the night cycle, when his comm opened and Ratchet’s gruff, tired voice informed him that Starscream was repaired, in stasis and transferred to the brig. The medic didn’t even sound surprised that he was still online and waiting for that call. Even if that quip was a joke, Optimus Prime was sure that Ratchet has suspected something between them; he knew the Prime for longer than any other Autobots and saw his fascination with fliers, Seekers and maybe with Starscream himself too.

-o-o-o-

Starscream came online to a mostly still numb frame that was surprisingly whole and repaired. The numbness immediately told him that it was not Hook putting him together, since that fragger never used painkillers for repair work. That left few possibilities and a glance from a narrowly opened optic confirmed the most likely one: orange walls all around him, undoubtedly belonging to the Ark and energon bars, expressing clearly that it was the Autobot brig. So they were the ones who found him first. Slag.

Through the bars, he spied the vain, blue idiot by the guards’ table, Tracks. Further glances confirmed cameras all over, watching his every move without a doubt even during the night cycle. They had that paranoid security mech, Red Alert, and from Laserbeak he knew that the glitched mech watched the feeds with complete obsession, far different from how a Con would do monitor duty. Starscream turned his processor inwards, taking stock of himself. Their medic, Ratchet was far better than Hook, he knew and he didn’t have to be disappointed; his systems all pinged back in better condition than for ages. That is, except his comm and weapons, but those were expected to be deactivated. 

All in all he got lucky. Starscream knew just how close he was to deactivation as an unknown system drew most of his remaining energon from his lines. Even now, after two orns, he felt an urging to get more energon, although his tank had the normal level of fuel. But he didn’t have any time to ponder about this mystery, as he saw another mech coming in and dismissing the guard. Optimus Prime… he should have expected the mech. Probably came to notify him of the negotiations for his release. Starscream paused in his thoughts for a bemused klik as he felt strangely satisfied… why would he feel glad to se the Autobot leader? It was illogical. He got a grip on his errantly fluttering spark and scowled at the approaching mech.

“Well? How soon am I going to be released?” – he demanded in his most screeching, deliberately insulting tone.

But the Prime didn’t answer immediately. His face was of course hidden behind that slagging mask, but his optics were strangely… contemplative for facing with an enemy. He came closer too, almost touching the bars and Starscream felt a sudden, strange urge to either put more distance between them, or close it fully. Fortunately the latter was impossible with the bars. He scooted back a bit on the narrow berth, but the cell didn’t give him a lot of space to play with. What the slag was he planning?

“Starscream…” – the tone was downright queer. He was almost begging and he hasn’t said so much as his designation. The frag was going on? – “I was hoping that we could talk.”

If his tone was strange so far, the way he said ‘talk’ immediately set the Seeker’s processor into survival mode. It was like… like… he couldn’t even find similes for this tone. The closest was that when Megatron was feeling unusually lewd but somehow lacking the viciousness that the tyrant exuded all the time. It made him feel apprehensive and strangely expectant.

“Talk… about what? I demand to be released!”

“If that is your wish, then we will arrange it. But first… please, Starscream, hear me out.”

Nononono, he was starting to get what it was about. Strange but not unexpected. The soft-sparked idiot of a Prime thought that he was fed up enough with Megatron’s slag and was going to give him a speech. A speech about…

“Yeah, I know. You want to appeal to my nicer side, point out Megatron’s abuse, see the wrongs of my ways and seduce me to the Autobot side, right?” – ahh, the reaction was telling in itself. Optimus Prime actually stepped backwards a step, one servo came up like pleading to him and his optics seemed to flare in… embarrassment?

“No! I mean yes, in a way… but not how you think…”

“Well, spare me your sermon.” – it was interesting… Starscream wasn’t sure why he felt guilty of snapping at him. Maybe because of those azure optics that shone with hurt and guilt at the same time? Why would he care? Starscream was seriously freaked out from his own reactions.

“It is not what you think. Please, may I ask one thing?”

“What?” – he snapped again, wanting his wince rather than the compassion.

“Why did this…” – he waved a servo towards his chassis – “… happen?”

“Why do you care?”

“I’m… I’m not sure. Please…?”

He so wasn’t telling to this Autobot about the courting and Megatron’s jealousy. Starscream hiked up his wings defensively and scowled anew, trying to regain his aggressive stance that somehow shifted into a relaxed one. Slag, he shouldn’t be so calm in the Prime’s presence, in the Autobot brig! Did they mess with his emotion nodes?

“None of your business, Autobot!” – he hissed.

“Please, Starscream… trust me, I want to help you…”

“I don’t need your help!” – now he was angry. How dare he imply that Starscream would need help!

“My brother nearly deactivated you this time, you know that, right?”

“I could have survived until my Trine came!”

“Ratchet told me that you had less than a joor.”

“Liar!”

“I don’t think he lies… and I certainly don’t do it. You could be safe here, Starscream.”

“Safe in your brig? No thanks. I’d rather die free.”

“No, I wouldn’t do that, I…” – interesting… he was glancing up to the security cameras, like he didn’t want the observer either and gulped back what he was going to say. – “You wouldn’t have to join us even. Doesn’t being neutral and do science again entice you? Safe from harm and…”

“Optimus Prime. I am the Decepticon Second in Command.” – he hoped that the cold tone drove his point home better than the angry outburst. – “I do not defect for _safety_ or _peace_ or any such _Autobot slag_. I fight this war for a reason – one that is opposite of yours.”

“Is it really…?”

“What…?”

“Isn’t freedom what you started to fight for? Against the caste system, the oppression, the inequalities…?”

“So?” – he narrowed his optics, trying to bore them into that red-blue chassis. 

“I fight for the same thing. Freedom of choice. For everyone.” – he was blushing, Starscream was sure, even with that slagging mask covering up half his face. – “I do make mistakes and one of those involved you. I want to be able to make up for you. I want you to be really free to choose. Obviously Megatron doesn’t give you that freedom… right?”

Starscream was thoroughly confused. He thought that he pegged this conversation down but the Prime surprised him. What mistake he made could involve him? Could it be… could they make some change in his systems while he was out? He started to run a thorough diagnostic, even though its results wouldn’t be ready for breems. 

“What did you do to me?!” – he asked, voice suddenly coloured with suspicion and enmity.

“I… harmed you, Starscream…” – he could hardly speak – “But it is something I’d prefer discussing in private.”

“Your brig, your rules.” – now, he was afraid. Such guilt couldn’t mean any good from him. “But I can’t just trust you while you have me here.”

“I understand… if you were to be free to go… would you give me a chance to explain later?”

“I… might. But I want to see that first.”

“I understand. I will contact Megatron immediately for your release… if that is still your wish.” – Starscream was shocked how sad he looked while he said that. Like… like he didn’t want Starscream to go back to the Nemesis. Not that he desperately wanted to get back there, since Megatron was sure not to have finished with him after only a single beating. The fragger looked serious believing that he was courted by an Autobot and Starscream had no idea how to prove his innocence to him. 

“Of course it is!” – he snarled, although he wasn’t so sure any more. He didn’t want to became an Autobot, he didn’t want to desert or defect, his future was in the Decepticon army… but suddenly safety, that he’d never judged as a paramount importance, felt more important than ever. Why, Starscream couldn’t fathom. Survival was his goal always, not personal safety and whatever Megatron could do, he could take. Still, he had to fight with the impulse to call back Prime and ask about his offer to stay. 

-o-o-o-

Optimus Prime sat in his office after a sleepless night cycle, reading a datapad the third time, but not really understanding the matter. He couldn’t manage to tell anything to the Seeker, partly out of his embarrassed guilt, partly Starscream’s dismissive coldness – and it didn’t help knowing that Red Alert was watching them the whole time. In fact he was expecting the security director any time now…

“Optimus Prime, Sir.” – the red mech was right on time with the beginning of his shift.

“Hello Red. What can I help you with?”

“Last night cycle’s conversation with Starscream, Sir.” – Red Alert was straight to the point and adamant. He kept his paranoia in check with an effort and didn’t call Optimus Prime a traitor for having dealings with the Decepticon SIC. Barely. But he wanted to hear a good explanation.

“I’m sure you heard me wanting to make him defect, Red. It would be a great help for our cause should he join us – or even if he choose to become a Neutral.”

“I don’t have a problem with that Sir. But you mentioned private dealings with him, as well.”

“Surely you understand that a promise made in an enemy brig carries not a lot of weight, can’t be really trusted? I want to give him a chance to decide freely, just as is our tenet.”

Red Alert was silent for a breem, probably, Optimus thought replaying the recording in his mind. The mech was surprisingly holding back his paranoia and Optimus Prime suspected Inferno’s influence in it. The fire truck probably convinced his partner that accusing Optimus Prime is not something one should do on a flimsy basis. At the end, he nodded to himself, apparently coming to a decision…

“You have something to hold to him, I see. In that case, I’m sorry to trouble you about it, Sir.”

“No problem, Red. I’m sure it looked suspicious and I’m glad that you trust me enough to see the ulterior motives behind it.”

One down, several… two or three? – to go. He worked steadily, calming himself by it for several breems before Prowl stepped into his office, carrying, as usual several datapads. He’d require an entirely different handling than Red Alert.

“Sir, may I ask what is it between you and Starscream?” 

Short and to the point. Prowl was the easiest to guess but it didn’t mean he could take it easy…

“I try to make him defect and find him enough reason to do so.”

Prowl looked up at his optics sharply. He spoke after a few kliks, his battle computer scrunching up facts, statements and possible eventualities.

“By seducing him?”

“You could say that… not exactly, but not far from the truth either.”

“So is it only a ploy for his defection?”

“Well… not fully…” – he couldn’t lie to Prowl, the mech could see through it in kliks.

“I am relieved, Sir, that you don’t lie to me.” – Prowl could understand how a good plot could overlap with personal desires, even if he didn’t work that way. – “I must admit some surprise at your choice though.”

“These things are rarely conscious choices, Prowl…” - he felt safe now, with Prowl not quoting any point of the regulations that he surely infringed. 

“Indeed, Sir. When do you intend to discuss your intentions with the officers?” – a subtle reminder that he shouldn’t go behind their back-plates, even if it was partly personal and Optimus Prime had yet another reason to feel guilty. Soon he would drown in his guilt-swamp at the rate it was growing…

“I have to see first how he reacts. Maybe in a few orns I’ll be ready to disclose more...” 

“See that you do, Sir. We trust and support you but it is easier if we know what you intend to do.”

“I… understand. Thank you, Prowl.”

“No need for thanks, Prime. I am sure you know what you are doing.”

Optimus Prime wasn’t as sure as Prowl seemed in that, but he accepted the SIC’s expressed support. At least his secret started to come out into the open in a way that didn’t freak out and alienate his officers from him. 

-o-o-o-

“That idiot hardly asked for anything.” – Megatron stared at the screen, perplexed. Optimus Prime contacted him in the middle of the night cycle to negotiate about Starscream’s release, looked tired and almost ill, and finished the talks in an extremely short order. – Could it be that Starscream annoyed them so much that they actually wanted to get rid of him?”

“Possibility: high.”

Megatron snorted at Soundwave’s dry voice. Of course it was always dry, but sometimes he could detect a tiny bit of inflection in it. Like right now, a tendril of annoyance – the telepath knew exactly how obnoxious Starscream could be when he put his processor to it. 

“Have you found out about that suitor of his? He seemed surprised instead of frightened when I confronted him so he might really not know who it is.”

“Negative, Lord Megatron. Investigation: ongoing.”

“Let’s collect that idiot then.”

Megatron took Starscream’s trinemates with him to the meeting, leaving Soundwave in charge. Optimus Prime awaited them with a stasis cuffed, distraught Starscream and some of his own mechs, looking like he’d want to be anywhere else than there. 

“Megatron.” – he tried to act like his usual calm and aloof self while facing his old nemesis – “You can’t expect us to be there every time you accidentally almost deactivate your Air Commander to save him.”

“Melodramatic much, Prime?” – Megatron sneered, while Starscream remained strangely quiet.

“My medic assures me that it is not melodrama but reality. Starscream had less than a joor when we arrived.”

“He has survived more. He is not a weakling Autobot.” – but there was a little doubt behind the scowling façade and the dismissing wave. Neither Optimus nor Ratchet was known for lying. He’d threatened Starscream with deactivation many times but never really meant it – he was useful, almost to the point of irreplaceable among the Seekers at least and he was useful as a punching bag cum scapegoat too. Megatron ruthlessly repressed the little thread of thought that he’d personally want the Seeker to remain alive and at his disposal too. 

“Nevertheless, he was nearly deactivated this time.”

“What is it to you anyway?”

“N-nothing. I’m just tired to see this pattern all too often.” – he was lying this time, Megatron was sure. Optimus has always been a terrible liar and the millenias that passed hasn’t made him any better in it.

“Ohh, I see… you feel sorry for this groveling traitor of mine… concerned for all Cybertronians still? Pathetic.” – he sneered, while grabbing Starscream’s cuffed servo and throwing the Seeker into his trine-mates’ arms. As far as he was concerned, this conversation was over – he’d heard his brother’s self-deluded drivel far too many times to be interested in it. Not even caring to see if they followed him, he started back to the Nemesis.

Behind him, Thundercracker wrestled off the cuffs from the strangely quiet Starscream, wondering about his lack of screeching, sneering and general peskiness towards Megatron. Even Skywarp looked a bit nervous by the sudden change in him.

“Star…? Are you all right?” – he whispered when Megatron was a bit farther from them. The answering look almost frightened him. It was just not Starscream to be uncertain and unsure of himself. 

“I’m fine. We’ll... talk about it back in our quarters.” – Starscream jumped into the air, transforming and streaking after Megatron, like he didn’t want the tyrant to be angry at him for straggling, which was strange in itself, even after a huge beating that he just had. Thundercracker and Skywarp looked at each other bemused before following him. Their trine-leader was definitely out of sorts. 

Starscream flew after Megatron mainly on automatic. In reality, he was seriously freaked out by what the level one diagnostic that he started to run in the Autobot brig, finally told him. It couldn’t be true. It must have been wrong. He never shared sparks with anyone aside the trine link – no sane Decepticon trusted anymech else to that level.

-o-o-o-

When Optimus Prime returned to the Ark with Prowl and the twins, Ratchet was waiting at the entrance with an air of impending doom about him. Seeing the angry glower that was directed at him and the wrench that the medic twirled in his servo angrily, Optimus dismissed the others and faced his irate medic. He was sure that he didn’t want any witnesses for this conversation.

“Can I help you Ratchet…?”

“You can give me an explanation. And! Not! the slag that you gave to Red. The truth.”

“Can we do it in my office? Just before you had me either arrested or disassembled…?”

“You’d better make it fast.” – the medic grumbled, still angry, but following him through the Ark. Once in Optimus’s office, he turned towards him and his ire seemed to grow.

“Just before you try to make up yet another story… Starscream is sparked and I bet my medical license that you sired it, the way you behaved yesterorn. I wanted to tell him too, but you managed to give him back to Megatron mighty fast…”

“Sparked?!?” – Optimus squealed and didn’t care how embarrassing that sound came out. It was way over what he’d thought. Now he was sure that Starscream would kill him once it all came to light and considering how many mechs suspected things about it already, it wouldn’t take long before that happened.

He felt elated and terrified at the same time, the new emotions superseding even his guilty conscience for awhile. A sparkling! None of them has seen one for longer than he cared to remember – eons in fact. No mech dared to create during the terrible war and it wasn’t even that easy even in peacetime. Coming from a single, one-sided merge… it was a miracle to happen at all. Coming down from his elation, worry gripped his spark as he looked at Ratchet’s stormy faceplates quickly freezing his processor. He’d just delivered Starscream with the sparkling and all into Megatron’s less than gentle servos…

“I take it that you didn’t know…?” – Ratchet fell out of his anger for a klik. Could it be still a farking big coincidence and not what he surmised? Optimus sure looked felled by the news.

“NO! I… no, I didn’t know!” 

“But you still look guilty… out with it Optimus. Everything. Can you be the Sire?”

The strange elation on Optimus’s faceplates suddenly shifted back to the barely there, hidden guilt that led the medic question him in the first place.

“I… think so.”

“How?” – finally the big sparkling was ready to spill, Ratchet was sure. 

“We… interfaced… but only once! I didn’t think it’d… I mean… a sparkling…? Are you sure?”

“Trust me, it is there.” – Ratchet scowled. Optimus looked almost broken. – “How could you interface fragging Starscream? And it would take a spark merge too!”

“It was… an accident.”

“No, don’t give me that. Two mechs don’t merge accidentally. That takes intent.”

“He doesn’t know about it.” – he almost whispered it. Admitting what he did was harder than he thought and it wasn’t even to Starscream.

“What!? How can he not know about a full interface?”

“You remember us being trapped in that cave after a battle?”

“Yeah. But you said that Starscream was out cold…” – Ratchet gasped suddenly, optics widening in shock – “You didn’t…!”

“I… did.” – Optimus buried his helm into his servos, not even the faceplate enough to hide his shame. He couldn’t look at Ratchet.

“Optimus…!” – Ratchet spluttered and was left without words probably for the first time in his function. He has seen many things during his function but to see Optimus, the pillar of morals and ideals admit taking advantage of a mech unable to resist his advances… it was too much even for the hardened medic. He knew what it meant in simpler words, not that he wanted to label it as such. Complete with the fact that he’s just told Optimus, Ratchet suddenly felt sorry for the Seeker. No matter how this sorry mess ended, he’d been a victim of both sides. 

When the Seeker found it out – and Ratchet would make sure he did – he’d not be safe among the Decepticons, not with carrying Optimus Prime’s sparkling. Or any sparkling for that matter. But he probably wouldn’t want to be with them either, not with Optimus, who basically raped him. There it was, the word that he tried to avoid. It sounded awful even without saying it aloud. It was incomprehensible to mention Optimus Prime and rape in the same sentence.

“How…? How could you…? Optimus!”

All right, he looked at least guilty as hell. Broken, almost. It comforted Ratchet a little bit that Optimus admitted it to be sinful and totally wrong and felt guilty about it. It meant that he had probably done it in some kind of a momentary madness or whatever, not intentionally, not in full cognizance. He hoped. He’d take any explanation that made it comprehensible.

“He was asleep with that Seeker coding and you know that I admired him for like always. He was so beautiful there, so responsive even asleep, and I was so much aroused that I couldn’t resist him, and it just… happened. I know that I have no excuse really…” – Optimus was strangely resigned, almost calm after admitting his deed, expecting Ratchet to condemn him for it not only on a personal level but probably relieve him from command as well. Truth to be told he’d deserve both. He’d known that barring a miracle, this one misstep, this one unfortunate but sinful accident could mean the end of his career as leader of the Autobots, Prime and everything. He missed his chance for making that miracle happen with Starscream going back to Megatron and now… now it was apparently time to pay the price.

(evil cliffhanger... sorry!)


	10. Decisions, decisions

Starscream was still eerily quiet when they all landed on the Nemesis and waited for the tower lift to arrive. Skywarp was glancing at him every klik or so, sometimes including the also silent Megatron in his gaze, guessing that it was – it must have been! - something between those two. He just hoped that Star wouldn’t be punished so soon after the last one. Not that Megatron looked angry, but he could hide it perfectly well if he wanted to. Starscream wasn’t even goading him like usual, for some reason not wanting to enrage their Lord. In fact the usually raucous Seeker was completely silent. The teleporter included his mate in the silently enquiring glances, but the blue Seeker just shrugged helplessly – he didn’t know any more than Skywarp either.

By the time the lift arrived, the two Seekers were more nervous than any of their commanding officers who both continued to be uncharacteristically silent. While Starscream looked almost in shock, Megatron wore a contemplative expression that usually meant little good for those who were implicated in it. Still, when they arrived, the tyrant just waved them off and neither Seeker, not even the out of sorts Starscream wanted to dally for long near him; they were glad to escape without a punishment or even just a verbal scoff. Unknown to them, the warlord was preoccupied with Optimus Prime and his uncharacteristic behaviour, to the extent that he let Starscream go without even noticing him.

“Star…?” 

Once in their quarters, Skywarp wasted no time to ask Starscream about what happened. It seriously freaked him out to see his normally confident, conceited leader to act so subdued and visibly shaken.

“Yeah, Stars, tell us. What’s wrong? Did the Autobots do something?”

Instead of an answer, Starscream sat on the berth heavily and pulling up his legs, promptly curved into a defensive ball. Even his wings were almost plastered to his plating. He didn’t relax his posture even when his trinemates sat beside him and petted the drooping wings gently. They exchanged a worried glance over his curled up frame and ideas of indistinct revenge started to formulate in their processors.

“Star…? Tell us… we will help.”

A muffled sound came out from under his defensive ball that sounded almost like a sob. 

“Y-you can’t.”

“Why? What happened?” – Skywarp almost felt insulted. They would help Starscream of course, if only he told them what the matter was. 

“I…” – another almost sob made his voice nearly incomprehensible, but he was trying to collect his wits now and visibly strove to be the same old Air Commander they knew and loved. – “… I’m sparked.”

They both froze. It should have been joyous news as none of them has seen a sparkling for ages and of course all Seekers loved sparklings by their deepest core coding. But they all knew Megatron’s stance on it too. They were warriors, not nursemaids and sparklings took a long time to mature before they were worthy as soldiers. Rarely ever happened that a Decepticon got sparked, as spark merging was actively discouraged, but even in those cases the sparkling got terminated as soon as the condition was discovered in the carrier. There were no exceptions from this rule. But then, this was the first time a Seeker got sparked and none of them could bear the thought of terminating it.

“Who…? Not the Bots…?” – Thundercracker could think of one condition that might give Starscream an out – in the unlikely case that Megatron wanted an heir. He didn’t seriously think that any Autobot would be responsible.

“Yeah, who is the sire?” – Skywarp didn’t think so far, but he was looking at his trine-leader curiously. Starscream was after all just as careful with interface as any of them, for exactly the same reasons.

“Can’t be anymech else but you…” – he murmured, the shock passing and his processor catching up with the events. – “I only merged with you two. No, not even with Megatron…”

Thundercracker sighed. There went the slight little chance of Star making it. There was no way Megatron would let them raise a Seekerlet, not when it took dozens of vorns. 

“But wasn’t it only a trine-bonding merge?” – Skywarp was confused. 

“If it is deep enough merge, it can happen. I heard about such cases long ago…” – Starscream was already over that point mentally and answered to Skywarp almost absentmindedly.

“Ohh…”

“The real problem is what we can do now.”

“Nothing.” – Starscream was somber and serious. – “He’ll never let me carry.”

“Can you… I dunno, hide it until it emerges and then…”

“Then what? Hide a sparkling on the Nemesis for vorns?” – he dismissed the idea with a decisive helm shake as totally ridiculous – “Or give it away?”

Skywarp nodded hesitantly.

“Could you give away your sparkling, Warp?” – Thundercracker looked incredulously at his younger trine-mate. Skywarp flinched hard as he tried to imagine it, even the thought going so much against his coding that it actually hurt to think of it. No, he couldn’t. He shook his helm sadly.

“I think I might… if it means that it could live.” – Starscream’s pained face and tone showed how much he abhorred the idea, even as he contemplated it. – “But I don’t think I could hide the carrying for long enough.”

“Why? It doesn’t show that much usually. We could steal you the extra energon and anything you’d need. The moodiness, well, they already expect that from you.” – Skywarp tried to bring a little lightness into the subject with the lame joke.

“Warp, can you imagine Megatron not punishing me for groons? Even if the sparkling survived one of my beatings without aborting, it’d take maybe a breem for Hook to discover my condition when he fixes me.”

“Uhh… true…” – he looked back at him, disappointed by the not working idea.

“Starscream… maybe you could hide for that long?” – Thundercracker wore his thinking expression as he tried to find a solution.

“Where?”

“Anywhere on Earth. Where we could help you.”

“And be deactivated by Megatron when I come back after three groons of disappearance?”

“He wouldn’t kill you…” – but even Thundercracker wasn’t sure of it. It would be far too long and Megatron would be furious with Starscream. No way of knowing how he’d react.

“Even so… Soundwave would know where I am hiding. From your mind. You can’t keep him out for so long, not if you have to supply me continuously.”

“Make the Autobots capture you.” – Skywarp spoke up suddenly. – “If you tell the reason to Ratchet, or their Prime, they’d totally help you keeping there for as long as needed. As a prisoner. And you won’t have to worry about Megatron.”

“You want me to give my sparkling to the Autobots…?” – Starscream stared at the teleporter with an incredulous face, covering up with it just how much the idea hurt and how strangely the idea of staying there felt safe.

“Who else could you give it away to, Stars?” 

Thundercracker was right. There were probably some neutrals somewhere in the universe but they all knew only Autobots and Decepticons. Since Decepticons didn’t raise sparklings, it left only the enemy as a possible choice. Much as they all hated the idea.

“It just… doesn’t sound right. There must be another solution, I just know.” – Starscream thought hard. They had a few orns at most to decide something and plan it – if he wanted to keep the sparkling. Which, as he discovered, he did. Maybe Warp’s idea was good for starters and they could hammer out a full plan in time.

“Sky… it means that we have to lie to Megatron. Can you do that?”

Skywarp looked insulted and hurt. 

“It is a _sparkling_ , silly! It isn’t like you want to betray him or whatnot this time.” 

“He wouldn’t agree with that, you know…?”

“S no matter. Besides… it is not only your sparkling Star, but either mine or TC’s. We were there, remember?” – he smirked at Starscream – “The first Seekerlet for eons.”

Starscream looked back at Skywarp surprised and a little bit sheepish. In the emotional upheaval, he totally forgot that the sparkling had a Sire too and it must be one of his trinemates. Strange… he couldn’t imagine either of them as the Sire and that was why he hasn’t thought of it before. He pulled Skywarp close, hugging him in a wordless apology, the silent Thundercracker draping his arms around both their frames. They would solve this matter, they would save this sparkling… whatever it took. 

-o-o-o-

“Optimus… I can’t believe you’d do such thing.” – Ratchet was still upset and very angry at his leader. He very much wanted to slam his helm with the wrench he held in a servo – only this time it was way beyond that. He twirled the tool in his servo once, hesitantly, but no… it was for minor stupidities like the twins were wont to do. What Optimus admitted doing was way more serious.

“I can’t believe it either…” – Optimus Prime still hasn’t looked up from the guilty, dejected slump he fell into when it came out. – “I totally understand if you condemn me for it. I broke not only my morals but the rules of engagement too. Not even an enemy deserves to be… treated thus.”

“You can bet I condemn you. By rights I should call a tribunal and have it sentence you… that is what you would do had it been anyone else, you know that.”

“I know, Ratchet. If you choose to do so, I will submit to it.” – Optimus answered him in a colourless, emotionless voice. He was almost glad to have somemech tell him a sentence of sorts.

“But I can’t do it…” – Ratchet slumped into the chair opposite to Prime’s desk, casting a frustrated, resigned look to him. His servo lifted the wrench once more and dropped it like the useless thing it was dealing with the mess. The tool clanged loudly as it landed in the heavy silence of the room. – “I can’t condemn the Autobot cause by removing you from it, not only the only one capable of dealing with Megatron on the battlefield, but the personification of our cause as well. I should… but I cannot.”

“I’m not fit to lead any more…” – Optimus murmured, hating the necessity that he too was aware of. He wasn’t so conceited as to think that the Autobots would just crumble without him, no; but he knew the balance of war that only existed while he stood against his brother. Prowl might be able to lead, to plan the strategy without him, but for most Autobots the Prime was the core of their cause, his presence giving them hope, justification and divine assurance. It was the only reason he hasn’t resigned the post after the act itself and it continued to remain true. His duty that he must do – because he was chosen for it.

“I’d think that the Matrix would leave you if that was true.” – Ratchet looked into his optics hard, unforgiving for the act, but with some tiny measure of sympathy for the long-time friend and leader too – “Let’s suppose that Primus thinks that you can still absolve yourself.”

“I… I tried Ratchet. I tried to make up to Starscream…” – he paused as Ratchet interrupted him with a sudden yell.

“Ohh… so that was it!” – Ratchet was hard put not to laugh suddenly. It was just… too funny in a situation that was way too serious.

“… yes. I tried, but I’m afraid I just made things even worse. I can’t help but think that my actions caused my brother to further abuse Starscream.”

“It probably did.”

Optimus hunched his shoulders again. He felt horrible but at the same time a bit relieved to be able to tell it to someone and gain his input. Ratchet was a good mech, an old friend and one Optimus knew he could lean on both for help and a completely honest and straightforward opinion. Ratchet could tell him what to do, how to make up for his sin right, because he seemed to botch his chances so far.

“What else could I do, Ratchet?”

“For one thing you must tell him. The sooner is the better.”

“I know, but…”

“I _mean_ it Optimus. Yeah, he might want to kill you for it. He might even try. Still, it is something you _must_ do. Anything else can only come afterwards. No courting, no good intentions, no anything before you admit it to him.” – the medic stared solemnly to his leader. He saw the guilt, the regret, the wish to repent in him. It was the only thing that stopped him from the threat he voiced earlier. That and the Matrix which apparently gave no opinion on the matter, but tacitly, by staying with Optimus, giving an indication that it was a one-time sin, a mistake which won’t be repeated.

Ratchet was old for a mech and saw, heard and learned a lot about Primes, including those who had fallen and lost their designations when the Matrix left them. There weren’t many and most were deactivated after the event, but Ratchet saw the difference between their actions that caused them to become corrupt, cruel, energon-thirsty or despotic – and the one-time mistake of Optimus that he regretted deeply, that he could learn from and never repeat. He knew that it was Primus himself who - through the Matrix – judged his Primes and if he was willing to give a chance to Optimus, it wasn’t the medic’s place to condemn him. 

“After you talk to him, we must make him and the sparkling safe from Megatron.”

“If I’m still functioning after that talk…”

“There is that too.” – Ratchet knew that with an enraged Starscream it was a more than distinct possibility – “Try to convince him that you’re worth more to him alive than deactivated.”

“Do I?” – Optimus was serious in asking it. If it took that much to atone, he’d accept it. It was high time he took full responsibility for his actions, no matter how much he still considered it a very sad and unfortunate accident.

“Look. There is a remote possibility that Starscream managed to be knocked up accidentally by somemech else, but I’d judge it to be less than one per cent, considering that he successfully avoided it for eons. In any other case you are the sire of his sparkling. Now, it is possible to raise a sparkling without the sire, but it is damned hard, mainly on the sparkling and Starscream must know it. Even harder is to raise it without the safety and protection that you can offer him. Without you, the Autobots wouldn’t accept that Seeker – or the three of them – living here.”

“I don’t think he’d want to live here. I tried to offer him that.”

“He’d have to for the sparkling.”

“I will try, Ratchet.” – Optimus didn’t sound optimistic but he tried to put enough in his voice to convince the medic.

“One more thing, Optimus… try to imagine how it felt… for him. Maybe it helps.” – Ratchet wasn’t above a bit underhanded ploys to get his point through. Optimus, it seemed to him felt guilty, but more for his actions than for the Seeker…

After Ratchet left, Optimus couldn’t stop thinking about the fine mess he was in and the impossibility of any solution. All orn, he tried to formulate a plan of how to approach Starscream once the Seeker contacted him as promised and convince him to stay, despite of everything. By the night cycle he was contemplating crazy plans more fitting to Sideswipe than himself, but still not satisfied with them. He tried to put himself into Starscream’s position, as Ratchet suggested, but every time he tried that he ended up fantasizing about the Seeker again – and when he realized it, he was thoroughly disgusted with himself.

At the end it was simple exhaustion that made him fall into recharge… 

_He felt a terrible pain in his wing and his left thruster sputtered before dying on him completely and he was falling. What the frag? He was completely baffled. Wings? Thrusters? Before he could solve the mystery though, he crashed heavily and the ground gave way under his weight. Clawing the ground resulted no slowing down and he was soon completely underground, seeing the last of the light disappearing overhead. Then the slide slowed and he came to a stop in an underground tunnel._

_The ceiling was barely clearing his helm as he stood up, wincing when the damaged wingtip hit the wall. **No sky!** He limped away from the still crumbling, falling rocks, fighting with the growing unease in the stale air. **No wind!** Though why was that important, Optimus wasn’t sure. The cavern was big enough to give a breem’s relief, but then the darkness weighed more and more on him, like a living thing. **No sun!** The uninjured wing twitched, the sensors trying to find a draught of air, a sliver of light, any indication of a way out, but the walls enclosed him completely. **No space!** His audials strained to catch any noise that would tell of something alive here, something that might be able to go out, but the silence was heavy and coldly encompassing him. **No sound!**_

_He fought with the rising panic in his processor. He shouldn’t feel it at all! He had no problems with being underground! But the oppressive feel of the walls, the silence that weighed on him, the enclosing rock walls around started to infuse him with a dread, a slowly creeping hopelessness. There was no way out, he could find none. The wing twitched and the claws tightened into a fist. What claws? Optimus tried to clear his processor but the shaking grew and a blanket started to come down on his meta. NO! He felt the panic rising.. and then the smooth codes that washed it away, into the deep, warm ocean of recharge. Yes, recharge was good. He’d be safe. Sleep. Safe…_

_Sensors informed him of another mech arriving. The codes shifted, twisted and evaluated. He was no danger, they concluded, from stance, EM field and previous knowledge. Recharge was still safe. He could observe but sleep, prevent the panic. The mech was… nice. His touch respectful, pleasant, calming, his field pulsing with awe and admiration. He sat closer, their platings touched. The touch warmed, blunt digits dipped into a thruster, leaving tingling in their wake before they left. It was nice… but it was unasked too. He didn’t want it, no matter how pleasant they felt. When they returned, the calm, blue field was tinted with warm crimson lust and bittersweet, purple guilt._

_Optimus was sure it was a dream. His processor was still fuzzy, but he was sure that it didn’t happen this way – not for him anyway. **He** touched Starscream… it shouldn’t be himself feeling the advancing, emboldened caresses, the unease, the need to get away. But he couldn’t move. The codes held him unmoving, in recharge… but then how did he feel the touches? They petted his thrusters, advanced onto his legs, straightening out the twisted position, he fell into, molested his wings and to his horror, he started to feel warming, tingling, reacting… no, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t him, it shouldn’t be, he didn’t want it, no matter how good it felt…_

_But he felt his frame moved, he felt a weight settle over him, servos petting him bolder, arousing him and he still couldn’t move, couldn’t protest, couldn’t scream, couldn’t online his optics… the growing charge made his resolve tremble, his panel retract and soon blunt digits pressed slowly into his valve. Thoughts that were fuzzy became downright incoherent as his charge grew and shattered what the slagging codes left him with. A warm mouth forced his lips apart and glossa played with his own limp one, leaving soon as he didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t reciprocate it. The digits left and he felt dread. The big spike that pressed into his valve, lighting up all the sensors there was a violation, a horror… but it felt oh so nice too.. He would have moaned, had he been able to. It was wonderful and horrible at the same time, messing with his meta even further._

_Optimus desperately wanted to online from his dream. It was downright queer to feel himself molesting his own frame, kissing his own mouth, spiking his own valve. It was horrible to feel totally hopeless and unable to resist anything, even having to suffer his own treacherous frame betraying him and encourage the other. Who was also himself. It was frighteningly complicated, besides utterly shameful. But his charge grew as the marvelously – **horrifyingly** – big spike thrust faster and deeper into his valve and those wonderfully – **awfully!** – talented digits found his cockpit and he felt like moaning again like a whore, while screaming in fury.._

_Then his molested cockpit shifted aside and he started to panic anew. Nononono… the armour plates unlocked and his spark spun excitedly, awaiting, ready to merge, driven by core coding deeper than anything else, recognizing the compatible spark. The codes shifted again, perceiving the light, preparing to dissolve, to free him at last, before… but a weight settled on his chest, covering his sparklight. Another spark touched his own, the rainbow energies of the coronas shyly playing with each other, the pulses reverberating between them and it shattered everything else. In a nanoklik of contact, before overload grabbed him he felt the two of them as one and it was as wonderful as it was terrifying._

_The rush of transfluid in his valve was just an afterthought in the glorious merging of sparks as they swirled around and stretched the klik into an eternity. Overload almost overshadowed the final explosion that took a piece from both sparks and shuffled them together. New codes awakened, new system came online for the first time in their existence, caring for and nurturing the new life. The sparks separated, leaving him once again in the darkness of recharge._

_As his frame cooled, the oversensitive sensors felt the touches like almost pain. Cleaning him, hiding what he’s done, covering up the act, cowardly and shameful. His unvoiced moan from the overload turned into a whimper of shame and a scream of rage. The helplessness and humiliation of the position he was forced into came forward and made the pleasure forgotten. Fury and shame swirled in his processor, the want of revenge and the wish to forget._

_But it was himself he wanted to kill slowly for what he has done._

Optimus sat up on his recharge berth, vents gasping to cool his overheated frame, processor whirring to work out what was real and what was the dream. He felt the tears of humiliation on his faceplates and the glorious existence of the newly created sparkling inside. If before he felt guilty and ashamed for his deed, now he felt wretched and horrible. He felt it for Starscream and he realized something. It wasn’t what he could or should do for the Seeker. It was to feel exactly what he did to him. Actions, plans and atonement would come from it.

The Matrix throbbed once, still hard but forgiving. 

-o-o-o-

“Starscream! How nice of you to join us at last.”

Megatron’s mocking voice greeted the tired Seeker the next orn in the command center. They talked late into the night cycle and recharged too little, but even then, he was late by maybe a breem or so. Thundercracker was lucky to have patrol duty and Skywarp was down in the storage – both lucky enough not to be reprimanded for being late. He hurried to his post, fighting hard with ingrained reflexes to answer something scathing to the fragger and give him an excuse for a punishment. But Megatron wasn’t about to let the matter go no matter that he was keeping low for once.

“I expect you to be on time for your shift, you imbecile! And look at me when I’m talking to you!”

Starscream had a bad feeling about it, but he turned towards the tyrant, still sitting on his throne. It was good so far as he stayed there, he thought, while murmuring a hardly audible, half-assed apology that still made some mechs lift a helm around him. Soundwave in particular stared at him from under that inscrutable visor long after Megatron’s attention shifted to a datapad, presented to him by Hook. Starscream felt the telepath trying to snoop in his mind but his blocks were strong enough to keep the noisy mech out. He hissed angrily at the TIC while continuing to input his report into the console. 

“Leave me alone, you freak!”

“Starscream: late.”

“So what, you suck-up?” – he could sneer at the telepath freely, so far as Megatron wasn’t listening. – “Maybe you never recharged late, but with normal mechs it happens.”

“Query: reason?”

“None of your concern!” – Starscream hissed again, fed up with the telepath’s insistence. The fragger was probably trying to make him annoyed enough so his mental blocks would slip up enough. Starscream strengthened the blocks and sneered at Soundwave’s waiting visor instead of answering, deliberately turning away from him. 

“Query: reason is secret?”

“Slag off! I have work to do! It’s not secret, but unimportant if you want to know!” – he screeched, unfortunately a bit too loud and it called Megatron’s attention again. 

_”Soundwave. Is he hiding a plot?”_ – Megatron commed to his third. – _“Planning a move against me again?”_

 _“Inconclusive. Hiding: probable. Plan: unknown yet.”_ – Soundwave answered to his leader discreetly, while continued to try to get behind the Seeker’s mental blocks.

It was an old dance between the two of them, one that usually, but not always ended up with Soundwave goading Starscream to be angry enough to weaken his mental walls. But this time, Starscream was keeping himself calm enough to maintain them to full strength – signifying of course that whatever he was hiding was important enough to do so. Although it was unlikely that the Seeker was hatching a plot so soon after being returned, Soundwave couldn’t dismiss the possibility. 

Starscream knew that once Soundwave believed him to be plotting and Megatron glowered him suspiciously, obviously tipped off by his pet telepath, he wouldn’t get away easily from them. But so far as he gave them no excuses to confront him, neither would do anything openly. He observed nervously that Megatron stood up from his throne and began a seemingly randomly prowling among the consoles. Wherever he went, mechs ducked their helms and worked diligently at their tasks in fearful quiet – even though the warlord had his favourite punching bag present, no mech was truly safe from his temper which often flared at others too. 

But Starscream knew that this time it was no random checking, that his workplace was the final target of the tyrant’s attention. He could do nothing about it none the less. Hunching over the console and working quietly wouldn’t deter Megatron when he was fixated on him and there was also Soundwave to think of. Starscream shoved the sparkling and their plans as far back into his memory banks as he could and braced himself for the inevitable.

“Soundwave, Starscream with me.” – the tyrant’s voice still caught him by surprise, no matter how he expected something from him. – “We have to discuss a new raid.”

Megatron was going towards one of the conference rooms which caused the Seeker relax marginally – the slagger preferred his punishments to be seen by as many as possible and not privately. Soundwave of course followed him without hesitation and he had to do that as well. Still, he tried to stay by the door in the smaller room, just in case. He also commed Skywarp to ask if he was available if needed. So far Megatron seemed his usual self, telling another of his half-assed plans with some new superweapon that the Constructicons – hahh! As though they were capable of something like that - cooked up. Starscream relaxed further as he drooled on, more concerned by the telepath’s snooping than him.

“Starscream! I asked if you have anything brilliant to add like usual!” – the snarl broke him out of his musing.

“N-nothing, Lord Megatron!” – he assured the slagger, not even bothering to find out what he said. He’d repeat it quite enough times before the raid anyway. 

“What are you hiding, Starscream? It is not like you to stay silent on the plans!”

“Nothing! I just… I just have to think about it!” – he yelped as Megatron stood and threateningly bent over him, one servo already on his neck, holding him back in the chair.

“Think? You can think, not only screech at me? Truly you surprise me, Screamer!”

“One of us is capable of it, you rustheap!” – if he was being slagged, at least he should deserve it. The servo tightened on his neck-cables, denting the sensitive metal there.

“Careful, Starscream, or you might need the Autobots’ help again soon.”

“Their medic at least knows what he’s doing. Unlike your pet structies.” – he sneered at the fragger’s faceplates, unafraid now that he was doomed anyway.

The hit shattered his cockpit and made him whimper as he suddenly remembered the sparkling. Frag! He pushed it so far back that he momentarily forgot about it. He brought up one of the null rays, but Megatron was faster and tore its muzzle off, before whipping his helm backwards with another blow. Soundwave was standing on the side, his mind coldly trying to find the way behind the Seeker’s shields, uninterested in the beating. Both of them stopped though and looked up surprised at the sudden VOIP and the purple flash of light, heralding Skywarp’s arrival. The teleporter was visibly distraught and casting a fearful look at his trine-leader, he dropped to his knee-joints in front of the surprised Megatron.

“Please, Lord Megatron, don’t… he’s not… don’t!”

Soundwave looked quizzically at the younger Seeker. Since he was fiercely loyal to Megatron, the telepath never bothered to check his processor for whatever plots Starscream was hatching. But this time they seemed to be together in whatever Starscream was hiding, so he turned his focus from the SIC to the much weaker shields of Skywarp. The chaotic emotions that were on the surface disgusted the logical, ordered telepath, but he pressed on, to the deeper thoughts. The reason for this uncharacteristic standup for his trine-leader that got even Megatron stumped, holding the SIC down, while he looked at Skywarp’s begging bemused… it should be easy to find.

 _“Lord Megatron.”_ – he commed to his leader – _“Starscream: carrying. Sparkling’s creator: possibly Skywarp. Creation: accidental.”_

_“So he is not plotting against me? What a surprise.”_

_“Plotting: hiding sparkling.”_ – he answered laconically. Skywarp’s mind was informative once he found the correct threads. – _“Hiding or leaving until it separates. Seekers: value sparklings highly.”_

_“I don’t care what they value. I won’t have my Air Commander bogged down with a worthless parasite!”_

_“Suggestion: let Hook examine it. Evaluate sparkling as damaged. Seekers: accept terminating damaged sparkling.”_

The comm conversation took barely more than a klik before Megatron nodded to Soundwave and silenced the still pleading Skywarp with a barked order and a further blow to the silently struggling Starscream’s chest armor.

 _“Hook! Into the conference room now!”_ – the open comm was heard by all of them. The private part of it was heard only by the medic as Soundwave filled him in.

The order confirmed Skywarp’s worst fears. There was absolutely no reason for Megatron to call Hook to the scene but for the sparkling, to terminate it. How Megatron knew about it, the teleporter didn’t know and hardly even cared; his pleading was cut short brutally and refused by the warlord and Skywarp’s loyalty was crumbling faster and faster by the klik. His optics were glued on his Trine-leader’s battered, bleeding frame that was held down by the silver claws of Megatron, struggling to escape from him but clearly unable to do so. He had maybe a breem before Hook arrived to decide what to do and it was completely up to him to save Star…

It wasn’t Skywarp’s forte to evaluate complex scenarios and make plans on the fly. Not that he had that many choices. He could do nothing and let the medic terminate a sparkling that might be his too… or defy Megatron and renounce being a Decepticon forever, for he would not let them go away with that. He wished if Thundercracker was there to help him and tell him what to do. He wished if Stars was able to talk and offer a way out to save him the decision. But neither was available and Skywarp moved as if in a dream to sidestep the turning Soundwave who probably picked up his decision at the last nanoklik, reached for a blue arm that flailed towards him, grabbed it, excluded the other touching frame from his calculations and jumped.

He teleported again straight after and sent a quick comm to Thundercracker to meet them at one of their favourite places, one where they could hide for a little while at least. Supporting the still spluttering, wheezing, bleeding Starscream, he flew. He couldn’t believe that he did this, defied Megatron, escaped the Nemesis for… well, probably forever. He was sure of his decision – the sparkling was infinitely more important than his loyalty… but he the suddenness of the break overwhelmed him so much that his processor was empty, frozen, helpless, moving on automatic.

“It’s not your fault, Warp.” – Starscream wheezed out, his rasp even more pronounced than usual, due to his damaged neck – “He shouldn’t have threatened the little one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not completely satisfied with how this chapter came out, but I don't know how to make it better. To be honest this fic is getting longer as I write, and by now even I think it is getting too long. I will try to finish it a bit faster.


	11. Seeker Law

The long abandoned factory saw very little life these days among its slowly crumbling walls and the many broken, blind windows aside from some bird families that made their nests among the dim rafters and raised their young there undisturbed for generations. It was too far from any cities for the homeless to find shelter in it and any owner it used to have had gone bankrupt long ago, leaving the huge, bare structures to their inevitable fate. They were built sturdily, too strong to collapse from the relentless siege by rough weather and therefore had nature reclaiming it for weeds, bushes and even small trees - to the delight of the bird flocks.

The echoingly huge main shop floor was strangely empty of the various debris that characterized the rest of the smaller buildings. The once busy assembly lines and their machines were cleared out when the factory was closed down and the empty floor had curious cracks that run in radial lines from many points, like the sturdy concrete had to suffer great weights placed on it. Along one wall unusual metal structures rose that had distinctly nothing in common with the condition of the rest of the building or its long-gone machines. The huge entrance was blocked by rolling doors in surprisingly good condition and some devices, distinctly newer than the factory itself, were placed on their insides.

It was one of these devices that upon receiving a signal that would be hard to detect by any interested authorities, started to open the huge doors into the balmy night of the young forest that sprung up around the abandoned buildings. Two huge shapes soared straight into the space that suddenly looked so much smaller now that they arrived into it. But it was big enough to see the shapes transform into winged bipedal forms, one obviously supporting the other, damaged, wheezing and leaking one. The Seekers liked this abandoned factory, for it was one of the few human structures that could accommodate and hide them comfortably from any – be it human military, the nosy Autobots or occasionally even from their own faction. Over the time they even placed some signal scramblers around and kept some necessities, like spare energon and a small medikit in it too. These were what Skywarp started to pull out after placing Starscream onto the makeshift berth.

The teleporter had no first aid knowledge whatsoever, but with Starscream’s directions and help he soon patched up the most dangerous leaks and wounds. None of them spoke much aside from what was necessary; the tricoloured Seeker had to rest his damaged vocalizer to give it a chance to heal, while the teleporter had an inner battle of conflicting loyalties – he knew that he had to save the sparkling but it caused him to betray his vow to the Decepticon cause… and Megatron personally, which made him deeply troubled. So Skywarp too was uncharacteristically silent, even as the third frame arrived through the huge doors, rolling them closed behind him, sealing the Seekers safely away from the rest of the world.

“What happened?” – Thundercracker asked when he saw that none of his trine-mates were speaking up.

“Megatron happened…” – Starscream scowled darkly – “… and fragging Soundwave.”

“Ohh… they found out…?” 

“Yeah. He called Hook in there, you can guess for what.”

Thundercracker sat heavily beside Starscream, gently stroking a wing, glancing curiously at the still silent, working, out of sorts Skywarp and back to his trine-leader, questioningly.

“Warp had to teleport us out from Megatron’s servo at the last klik.” – the explanation wasn’t too elaborate as Starscream’s vocalizer was still damaged and rasping heavily, but Thundercracker could still guess what wasn’t said. 

“Warp… you did the right thing…”

“I KNOW!” – Skywarp snarled angrily and slapped the welder in his servo onto the berth with rather more force that the instrument should take – “But I can’t throw away loyalty so easily, like you two seem to!”

“Loyalty to what, Warp? To a madmech intent only to destroy everything?”

“To Megatron! He is our cause!”

“No, Warp… our cause is what we make of it. Megatron used to talk much about equality, freedom and overthrowing the corrupt Senate. That was our cause, yeah.” – Thundercracker’s deep voice carried his own disillusionment that he never hid within the trine – “But when was the last time he mentioned any of it? When was the last time he told any goals beside spouting ‘ultimate conquest!’ and ‘Die Autobot scum!’ or pursued anything else but his vengeance for the Prime?”

“Still, he is our leader. We swore loyalty to him, even you, Screamer.” – Skywarp insisted, using the hated nickname deliberately this time to hurt, to insult. He was still kneeling in front of the berth but it didn’t detract from his anger – “…and I had to betray that…”

“Do you really believe that I only tried to overthrow him to have the leadership?” – Starscream gently lifted the dark helm with a talon and looked straight into his optics, more open about his feelings than ever – “I like power, yes, but not at all cost. I’ve never done anything against him while he was on the right track, don’t you remember? But since he forgot why we started to fight and pursued only his mad revenge against Optimus Prime… no, Warp, it is Megatron who betrayed our cause first.” 

“Look at me Warp.” – Thundercracker’s deep voice came before the teleporter could answer to Starscream. “Do I look like to you that it was easy to decide? Haven’t you seen my doubts for ages? It was mainly _you_ keeping me there. But this time… well, the sparkling just tipped the scales. Like it did for you too, am I right?”

Skywarp still looked miserable, but as their words sank in, he started to see his own decision in a different light. Although he hardly cared about ideology, he had to admit that Megatron has changed to the worse over the vorns and they were no closer to their goals than at the beginning. Besides… Megatron didn’t have to be so cruel and callous about a single sparkling. Even if it was a bit of a bother, the three of them could have managed without being bogged down with it.

“Yeah… I couldn’t let him destroy it.” – he murmured, calmer now. Anyhow, they had no way back after the stunt he pulled. For better or worse they had to live with their decision – “But what will we do now?”

“We have a little here, so we can stay for a few orns.” – Starscream cast an undecipherable glance at Thundercracker before continuing. – “We’ll decide more later.”

“I can hop back and get our stuff. Maybe some energon if I find some. They probably haven’t put up the anti-warp field.”

“Not yet. If I’m correct Soundwave just waits for you to do that and turn on the field. No, Warp, the Nemesis is not a good place to go back any time soon.”

“Has it ever been that?” – Thundercracker rarely grumbled about conditions, but neither Seeker ever liked the sunken spaceship’s claustrophobic atmosphere. - “At least here the air is moving and we see the sky.”

“Yeah and an Autobot or two can drop by any breem…” – it was the only drawback of the place, that they were closer to the Ark and the Autobots’ surveillance than it was healthy and had to be careful about moving around in the open.

“If we stay here they’ll inevitably notice us. Better be careful when we fly.”

“They wouldn’t harm you with a sparkling!”

“If they stopped enough to find it out… and you two wouldn’t have that protection either.”

“Starscream, you’d need their help soon. We can steal energon from the humans just like before, but the sparkling needs more. We can’t avoid them forever unless we leave Earth and take our chances away from here.”

“I don’t need help!” – Starscream snapped, glaring at his blue trine mate.

“But the little one does.”

Starscream only scowled at him and turned away. He wasn’t pouting, but it was a close thing.

“Mr. Moodiness…” – Skywarp stage whispered to Thundercracker, smirking.

“Am NOT!”

“Okay, Star… don’t be angry. We will solve it.”

-o-o-o-

“We will help.” – Ratchet didn’t question the blue Seeker’s word. He turned up at the Ark unarmed, alone and asking medical help for Starscream while swearing neutrality. The medic and Optimus Prime were worried about the Seeker, since he wasn’t seen either in the last battle or in patrol, flying around and they had no way of knowing if Megatron harmed him again. Now the mystery was solved and Ratchet – glancing at the relieved-looking Optimus Prime – was glad that it did without further dramas and complications.

“We will?” – Ironhide wasn’t nearly as sympathetic to the Seekers’ plea and showed it with a frown and a growl at the blue flier – “I say let Starscream solve the slag he made himself.”

“Stop it Ironhide. We will help them of course.” – Optimus Prime didn’t scold Ironhide, but it was a close thing to retain his authoritative air. Thundercracker had no such compulsions and snarled at the red mech openly. 

“Why, Prime?” – Ironhide wasn’t cowed by a single look.

“Because I won’t let the first sparkling I saw for eons go and maybe deactivate for lack of medical attention.” – Ratchet was openly scowling at the weapons specialist.

“Sparkling? The Screamer was sparked up??? Who was it? Ole Megs, huhh?”

Thundercracker’s expression was stormier than his designation but he spoke before the spluttering medic and the strangely nervous Optimus Prime.

“Only we merged with Stars, so one of us sired the sparkling. Megatron wanted to terminate it, that’s why we left.”

Optimus Prime glanced at Ratchet, their looks clearly agreeing that so far it was best to let the other Autobots believe so. They wanted to talk about it with Starscream first.

“Have you decided to defect, Thundercracker?”

“N-no… we abandoned the Decepticons but we don’t want to be Autobots either.” – he looked hesitant – “If that is possible…”

“Then why should we help you?” – Ironhide wasn’t giving it up, although he knew that once the Prime decided, he didn’t have a lot of chance to change that decision.

“ **I** will help them, not **you** and not **us**.” – Ratchet’s wrench put the stress on his words by clanging on Ironhide’s helm, drawing a surprise yelp.

“Still. Let them come to the Ark, chuck them to the brig and then maybe start talking about Ratchet helping him. They are a danger to the Humans at least.”

“If we can have what we need, like energon, we won’t bother the Humans.” – Thundercracker never understood why the Autobots thought that they wanted to destroy humans for sport. They needed energon and humans had the sources, it was that simple. Humans were no enemies, no danger for them, meaning they were beneath their notice. And their soldiers, well, they fought a war just like all of them. – “I can safely promise this much.” 

“Ironhide, stand down. Ratchet and I will go with Thundercracker, while all other Autobots will stay here.” – Optimus said, looking sternly at Ironhide in particular.

“Prahm, no…!”

“That’s my final word, Ironhide. I trust them and unless they act otherwise, we will help them.”

Ironhide didn’t look happy, that was for sure, but since he saw even Prowl silently agreeing with Optimus, he couldn’t do more to convince them. The SIC, for his part started to put the puzzle together finally and although he could hardly believe some of it, it was the only solution to the separate pieces that got them together seamlessly. It was a kind of a situation he didn’t really agree with, but couldn’t help either. Optimus Prime was obviously with Starscream and the sparkling bound them together firmly. Whether it would be enough in a long term or for the other Seekers, they’d have to see. Or for most of the Autobots. Prowl could very well foresee the problems if… or rather when the secrets were all in the open. Ironhide wouldn’t be the only one then to protest against the Seekers’ presence and Starscream’s… role… with their leader.

-o-o-o-

It took them less than a joor to reach the abandoned factory building and Optimus was a bit sheepish to realize that the Seekers hid almost under their sensors – so close to the Ark that neither of them suspected so. He got more and more nervous as they closed on the Seekers’ hiding place, fidgeting on his suspension, driving so erratically that Ratchet had to warn him once to snap out of it. Once there, they transformed, the also nervous Thundercracker waiting for them in front of the rolling doors, leading them inside.

“Starscream, Skywarp.” – Optimus Prime nodded to both of them, the strangeness of the situation gripping them all, wings rising to threatening positions, the Seekers instinctly taking up a defensive formation - until Ratchet’s exasperated scoff broke the tension. They asked for help, but it didn’t mean that they trusted them fully. He’d be surprised if they had, really.

“Ohh, stop this posturing and let me see the sparkling.”

Ratchet pointedly ignored Skywarp’s angry hiss as he stepped closer, into the range of their talons, ignoring their nervous flinches and swept the scanner over Starscream’s cockpit. He took in the recent repairs, guessing their origin too – the Seekers probably had trouble before they could escape the Nemesis. But so far it was fine, at least until he got the recalcitrant Seeker into his med-bay again.

“The sparkling is miraculously healthy, especially considering how scrapped you look.”

“Try and hide one from Soundwave and Megatron and escape with less.” – came the hissed answer, the Seeker’s vanity overcoming his nervousness.

“Point taken. Still, as soon as you finish with Optimus, I’ll see you in the medbay.”

Starscream looked at the Prime with barely hidden anxiousness in those red optics. Now, seeing the mech, he suddenly remembered their last conversation and that Optimus wanted to speak about something that embarrassed him, something that he’d done to hurt him. Obviously whatever it was, he could use it to garner a place and protection from him. They would need the mech’s protection from the rest of the Autobots, Starscream wasn’t so naïve to think that they’d be welcomed with open arms.

“I guess you know what I... we must have and that we don’t want to be Autobots.” – he started.

“Yes, I know. I’m prepared to grant you that, but first… Thundercracker, Skywarp… would you let me talk to Starscream alone? I swear I won’t harm him or the sparkling.”

The request was certainly strange and the two Seekers glanced at each other uncertainly. Should they let the Autobot leader be alone with their carrying leader? It went strongly against their protective protocols and they both shifted uneasily. Starscream though wasn’t surprised and nodded them that he agreed to a private conversation, silently reassuring them to leave. They would be close if anything… untoward happened.

As the others left the building, Starscream looked expectantly at the big frame of Optimus Prime in front of the doors. The Autobot leader hasn’t come closer to him so far, like he didn’t want to crowd the Seeker and awaken his protective instincts. Which, Starscream noted interestingly, hasn’t even twitched, like he trusted the big truckformer for some reason. He felt... safe in Optimus Prime’s presence, like the universe finally became as it should be, like the two of them together was a natural state of things. It was certainly strange.

Starscream waited more or less patiently. The Autobot leader was not Megatron and therefore would require different handling. Needling him, he knew, would lead nowhere, but reasonable arguments could work. Once he slagging started whatever he wanted to… It took a few breems before Optimus Prime heaved a sigh through his vents and slowly moved toward the berth, guilty blue optics trying to connect with suspicious red ones.

“Starscream… I know it will be a shock, but please let me explain everything from the beginning. Whatever is your reaction, you will get the help I promised.”

“Explain what?”

“Your trinemate said that they believe the sparkling you carry to be theirs.”

“Yeah… since I only merged with them it must be.” – A suspicious glance broke Starscream’s scowling countenance for a klik. What was the Autobot leader up to?

“I… nevertheless, it is not the case…” 

“What?!?”

“The sparkling is not theirs… it is mine… please, let me explain!”

Starscream couldn’t take it any more sitting patiently and the suspicion that he felt was getting unbearable. Jumping on his thrusters he shouted at the babbling Autobot leader.

“You lie! You can’t know that! You lie!”

“I… I can assure you Starscream that I do not. Just… listen to me.”

“You LIE!” – the audial-splitting scream left them both wincing and even those on the outside heard it, glancing to each other unnerved.

“The sparkling as I said is…” – he took a last, shaky invent before continuing. He had to say it aloud. “… it is mine. Now this close I can feel it…”

“YOU LIE! LIAR!” – Starscream screeched and his voice rose in pitch and volume until it cut out for a klik, resetting his vocalizer. But he continued, denying what the Autobot said and what his suddenly happily spinning spark signalled – “It is impossible and you LIE!!! LIE! LIE…!”

“Please, let me explain! It is not impossible, only you don’t know about it.” – Optimus Prime kneeled before the Seeker helm nodded forward in guilt – “It is my shame, but… it happened between us.”

“How…?” – Starscream was totally shocked and unnerved, fearing something terrible to be revealed. If it was true… but he still didn’t remember the two of them interfacing like… never.

“If you remember that underground cave we were in together…?”

“Y-yes… but I was recharging there…” – what the slag the Autobot leader did to him? He was afraid of something at the time, but his processor and memory banks were untouched, unharmed, so he dismissed his own suspicion as baseless. But it seemed, something did take place in that blasted cave.

“I… you must understand Starscream that I’ve always admired you and wanted to get closer… and in there, I couldn’t keep away from touching you… and… in time I couldn’t keep…”

“CLOSER? ADMIRED? TOUCHING?” – Starscream was shocked to his very core – “YOU FACED ME WHILE I WAS IN RECHARGE???”

“Umm… essentially… eventually… yes…” – Optimus knew he was babbling, knew he was doing a bad job in explaining, but he couldn’t help it any more. – “I can’t tell you how sorry I…”

He continued to kneel and made no move when the Seeker got over the freezing shock and with an enraged shriek jumped to his pedes and tore into his faceplates with his vicious claws, stopping the streaming words of apologies. Starscream didn’t hold himself back and the gouges were deep, with energon flowing out at once. He continued to hit and slash the red and blue mech who made no move to defend himself, interspersed with shrieks of _slagger_ and _rapist_ between the hits. All the last few groons’ of uncertainty, mysteries and suffering suddenly made sense coming crashing down in his processor and Starscream held back nothing of his rage. 

Hearing the racket, the two Seekers broke the door open, fearing for their trine leader, ready to defend him - but as they entered, both of them stopped in shock. The spectacle that was spread before them was something that neither of them expected and it took their processors a few klik to accept what they saw. Starscream was making most of the racket – no surprise there – and proceeding to beat the slag out of the Autobot leader, who, although certainly stronger than the Seeker, did nothing, didn’t even lift a servo in defense. In consequence, he was rather the worse for wear and gaining a new dent or gouge every klik as they stood there nonplussed…

It was Thundercracker who caught on first and not wanting to botch their chances with the Autobots, tentatively approached the enraged Starscream. Skywarp stood by the door, jaw gaping in complete bemusement and near shock. The Autobot medic, miraculously and to compound the mystery came in too but did nothing to defend his leader, except standing close and watching them both carefully. His scowl seemed to be directed to Optimus Prime too.

“Stars? What happened?” – the blue Seeker didn’t really wanted to get in the way of those energon-dripping claws and so tried to call out to him from a good distance. Starscream looked deranged enough to turn on anyone who dared to approach them.

 _“Optimus is the Sire of the sparkling, not you.”_ – the medic commed to him and Skywarp and Thundercracker turned his incredulous stare towards him – _“He interfaced Starscream while he was incapacitated. A rather nasty case of being enamored with him and unable to keep his servos to himself…”_

Thundercracker gaped, silently repeating the medic’s words in an effort to have them make sense. Optimus Prime ‘faced Starscream? The blue Seeker suddenly remembered the innocent jokes they told about the Autobot leader opticking Starscream in battles and shuddered. They weren’t so innocent then, those looks and they should have protected Star from it... – “Where? When? How?”

Ratchet summed up to them what he knew in a few sentences, while they watched the unlikely spectacle. It soon became obvious to all observers that Starscream, although he certainly could – did not deal lethal blows. He was nearly incoherent still, judging from his garbled Vosian-standard mix of swearing, but the talons that tore into plating and wiring avoided the main lines and the spark chamber. Like something held back his servo, his anger…

“Would you let him kill your leader?”

“So far he’s doing fine.” – was the laconic answer and the Seeker saw just how much the medic approved of his leader being punished for the… well, it had to be rape if Starscream didn’t agree to it. Skywarp, on the other hand was growling and looked like he was going to join his trine-leader any klik.

“No, Warp, let them alone. It’s their business.” – they didn’t have to defend their trine-mate and punishing his attacker was exclusively Starscream’s right, however he saw fit, according to Seeker law. Since the Autobot medic wasn’t going to intervene, Thundercracker supposed that he knew about and accepted their customs for the situation. 

They watched uneasily and only moved when Starscream suddenly stopped shrieking and dropped down beside the energon-leaking, claw-marks decorated, heavily dented Autobot, curling into a sobbing ball. His fury spent, he fell into the exact opposite – helpless depression. Before Thundercracker could reach them, he saw one torn but working blue servo rise and gently rub a red shoulder vent. The touch was totally devoid of sensuality or lust, it was just a gentle caress to soothe distress; cautious, but determined like Optimus Prime now, that he finally admitted his sin.

“I am truly sorry, Starscream…” – he whispered, ready to remove the servo if the Seeker showed any sign of disgust or anger, but slowly flared his field too as it didn’t happen, conveying apology, guilt, platonic caress and a wish to protect. He made no move to acknowledge his own injuries, focusing on the distressed flier completely. – “What I did was unforgivable, I know. I only hope that you deem me worthy of making it up to you.”

He got no coherent answer, but Starscream made no move of putting distance between them. He didn’t curl closer either, and so they remained, a frozen tableau for several breems, a distinctly worse for wear Optimus Prime gently caressing Starscream’s shoulder and wing, the Seeker slowly stopping his sobs and the rest of them watching the whole thing like statues, not wanting to disturb the mood.


	12. Tell me why

“Fragger.” – the swearword distinctly lacked Starscream’s usual ire and to Thundercracker even the scowl that marred the ashen faceplates looked forced. He was exhausted mentally and emotionally after the events of the last joor and the blue Seeker wasn’t surprised – it was a damn big revelation to all of them, but especially to Starscream. Skywarp was silently fuming in one corner, ignoring everyone – the black Seeker had more or less convinced himself to be the Sire for the sparkling, not in the least to explain his disloyalty to Megatron, and now felt cheated. Thundercracker didn’t even try to deny that he too felt a bit disappointed - but his conscious mind wanted to purge that thought, knowing that it wasn’t Starscream’s choice to cheat on them and he shouldn’t even label it as cheating…

“Fragging mess, that’s what it is.” – Starscream echoed his thoughts as they often did within the trine. – “Warp, don’t be like that, please…”

Both of them lifted a helm at the last word – not even them, Starscream’s trinemates for thousands of vorns have heard such an expression from him often. Skywarp’s pouting lipplates twitched into an almost smile, his quicksilver mood changing fast as usual from the earlier, dark frustration into warm acceptance. The black Seeker stood and crossing the space plopped down on the berth, on Starscream’s other side, not occupied by Thundercracker. He bumped a black wing into the white one, silently apologising and supporting his trine leader. They sat in companionable silence, watching the other corner, where the Autobot medic repaired the tears and gouges on Optimus Prime’s armour, only Starscream’s occasional swearing interrupting the quiet, lacking steam and echoing in the space. 

The punishment – argument? fighting? Thundercracker wasn’t sure what to call it – ended up without any resolution, any forgiveness or condemning, leaving just bemusement in its wake. They weren’t sure how to react when the red-blue mech stood up after the repairs, how to handle him. With deference to the leader of the Autobots, who held their future fate in his servo? With contempt to the rapist, who took advantage of their trinemate and made them defect from their faction? Or with forgiveness to the remorseful sire of the sparkling who claimed momentary weakness stemming from… love? 

That was the hardest to accept for all of them. That Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots was in love with Starscream, and by his own admission, have been so for many vorns. That all the googly optics he gave were real. That he was the mysterious mech courting Starscream anonymously. That he was so enamored by the Seeker, that, given the unexpected chance, he couldn’t stay away and keep his servos to himself.

“I can’t stay with you in that fragging orange eyesore. I just… can’t.”

Starscream accepted Ratchet’s word, because he had to – he felt Optimus Prime to be the Sire of his sparkling in a way TC and Warp never felt like so. He accepted, with difficulty, that he courted him, loved him - and raped him. It didn’t quite make the truckformer an ideal bondmate-material. If he was very-very honest to himself, Starscream had felt a little drawn towards him and in an ideal world, with no war and factions, no sparklings and rape he might have been amenable to entertain the idea of letting the Prime court him and maybe, maybe in time bond with. It wasn’t like he had a lot of serious suitors, the Seeker thought sourly. 

But right now… right now he didn’t want to see the mech. Not that way anyway, not with that silly little smile on his lipplates, uncovered by the facemask to show his honesty, not with those guilty but hopeful optics, not with that lustful EM field that made him think of something he knew he couldn’t remember… He would still have to negotiate with him, talk with his officers to be accepted, work out a solution that would cater for their needs and protect them from Megatron’s expectable ire while giving something in compensation, other than actual fighting. 

Just not yet.

“We could stay here. It is close enough to the Ark but gives us our private space.” 

The idea that Thundercracker suggested wasn’t half bad. Flying, the Autobot ship was less than a breem away and in emergencies, Skywarp could get them over there in one jump. With reliable communications they could retain their neutrality and still enjoy the Autobots’ help. Starscream looked up to find Optimus Prime watching him closely. He felt… embarrassed by the complete breakdown a little time ago. It wasn’t him to lose his composure so completely… was it? He sensed Thundercracker’s slight amusement in the bond with Skywarp’s silent mirth joining it.

_::Yeah, Star, you are like this.::_

_::am NOT!::_

_::We don’t mind it Star… and the fragger deserved it.::_ \- the blue Seeker cast a particularly hard glance on the Autobot leader - _::yeah, it’s better to stay here. He still looks at you with those optics…:_

_::I have to have him close for the sparkling… even merge a few times… gahh::_

_::Yeah, but he should be the one coming here for that::_

_::I wouldn’t mind adding our spark energy to the little one… he should be a Seeker.::_ \- Skywarp added hopefully.

“You can stay here if you want to… I completely understand your decision. I’ll make sure you get whatever you need.” – Optimus knew that it was foolish to expect Starscream to forgive him or even trust him right now. He only hoped that in time it would change… he collected himself slowly after the revelation and the attendant emotional moments. He knew it wouldn’t be easy and it wasn’t. Still, Ratchet was right, he had to do it, had to admit it to Starscream. His spark felt much lighter now, not yet unburdened but getting there. He had been doing it the wrong way, he saw now; there could be no making up before admitting his deed, no matter how much he had tried. It all went wrong… and now he knew why. 

“Until the last part of the carrying cycle.” – Ratchet added – “Then I want you closer to the medbay.”

“Warp can take me there in a klik.” – it wouldn’t be Starscream not to argue.

“He could. Only… what if he is incapacitated, pranking, away for some reason, or should I mention you being attacked by the Decepticons…?” – Ratchet was sure that he wouldn’t let a carrying mech near emergence to be far from a full medbay.

“Ohh, all right… it is a groon away still.”

“You should come to the Ark now, to finalize our agreement with my lieutenants.” – Optimus told them – “… and maybe a few times later, to… socialize maybe? I’m sure the Aerialbots would enjoy meeting you, all three of you, even if you want to… avoid me.”

“We’ll see.”

-o-o-o-

It was awkward with the three jumpy, nervous Seekers walking on the Ark corridor, facing similarly nervous but usually far angrier Autobots. No matter that Optimus and Ratchet was with them, there were still quite a few angry shouts and insults thrown at them. They were certainly not popular among the Autobots, which Starscream could even understand– he and the other Seekers caused plenty of damage to them over the vorns. It didn’t cow them though. If only, it made them proud and as one the trine flexed their wings and closed ranks, defending their carrying leader as they marched on the enemy corridors. 

Optimus Prime led them into the bigger conference room, to allow plenty of room for them and still able to call all his commanding officers to attend. It wasn’t easy to convince Red Alert that they weren’t making an elaborate trap and so he, too should be there, but after a breem of haggling, even the paranoid security chief started to perceive that the whole meeting was more about Optimus Prime than the Seekers. Given what he got to know earlier, he was finally joining them in the big room.

“Your attention, please.” – Optimus seemed strangely resigned, even behind the facemask. – “I have a few things to notify you, first of all our agreement with Starscream and his Trine. I have decided to accept their claim to be neutrals from both faction, but under our protection.” – he lifted one servo to stop the inevitable flood of arguments and questions for a few more sentences – “They will stay in a nearby place, but will be under our protection, with communications and all the amenities that we can offer. The reason for this is Starscream’s sparkling which is in danger from Megatron. This arrangement is final and I don’t want any Autobot to defy it.”

He paused for a klik, sighing once. No mech in the conference room moved so much as a wingtip or a sensor panel, the optics were all fastened on him, waiting for the next words.

“On the other servo, the Sire of his sparkling is not one of Starscream’s Trine as they believed earlier, but myself. I have consorted with him, as some of you already know. If you decide to remove me from command, then I will abide by your decision.”

The bombshell exploded in the room with the inevitable results. Those who’d known about it before, like Prowl, continued to sit and wait for what would come next. Red Alert fidgeted nervously, but he, too remained silent – the arrangement that kept the Seekers out of the Ark suited him perfectly. Jazz looked surprised by the sparkling’s parentage, but the saboteur took the news in stride, more concerned about its future effects than assigning blame. To have the Seekers removed from Megatron’s army was definitely to their advantage and he was not going to condemn Optimus for breaking a rule. Not when most of his job was about breaking as many as he could.

Ironhide though looked like he himself was going to do some exploding on his own. He jumped on his pedes and stood there spluttering until he collected enough control to speak.

“Prahm, how could ye do that?” – he cast a disgusted glance on the Seeker who answered with an angry sneer – “With this… this…”

“Ironhide!” – Optimus Prime snapped at him in a really angry voice, optics flashing over the facemask – “Mind what you speak!”

“But… everymech knows how he is!”

Starscream choose this klik to interrupt the shouting, his face a lesson in furious control. - “What do you mean by that?”

Ironhide’s face was a lesson in total outrage.

“You know perfectly well what I mean… _slut._ ”

Optimus Prime’s shout at him was too late and too little to stop Skywarp teleporting on top of Ironhide and his vicious talons gouging energon smeared tracks into his helm. The black Seeker was shrieking incoherently and Ironhide was too surprised by the attack to retaliate, even though he was stronger than the flier. Mad rage though lent an extra strength to Skywarp and he proceeded to work out his fury at the insolent, fragging Autobot at the insult on his Trine-leader that was, as they knew totally undeserved.

“Stop it Warp!” – The two other Seekers shouted together, while the Autobots jumped up and the situation was about to deteriorate into an outright battle.

Red Alert shouted at Teletraan to set the Ark to battle stations and send a fighting detail to the conference room at once. Jazz was on his feet mere kliks behind Skywarp and tried to remove the screeching flier from Ironhide without causing him harm, while Thundercracker was on them in nanokliks and did his best to remove the TIC’s arms from his lover with much less care. Ratchet waded into the brawl with the intent of separating them but only got a few punches for his efforts, ironically from both mechs starting it. Prowl shouted at both Jazz and Ironhide to stop it, but when it wasn’t successful, he too rose to join the fray that started to get ugly with energon dripping and parts of armors clanging as they were clawed and torn. 

Optimus froze for several kliks, his processor totally unable to decide what to do. For a few, terrifying nanokliks, he almost wanted to join Skywarp in rending Ironhide for his words, and the resulting conflict in his meta kept him from acting as fast as he would be able to, letting the fight get ugly and the other mechs work up a battle rage that promised a energon-bath. Only when Prowl too joined the chaotic mass of mechs among the thrown chairs and upended table, he started to move, deciding that pulling them apart was the first order of business. But he was still a step apart from the brawling heap of mechs when the only occupant of the room not yet involved acted.

The null-rays that Starscream wielded had no sound of their own when fired, but the distinctive, pink-tinged energy bolts were hard to miss. He stood calmly at the end of the room, back and wings safely at the wall, arms raised to point his characteristic weapons at the brawl and picked off the brawling mechs one by one, regardless of their factions. To show his goodwill and for the sake of the negotiations, he used the lowest setting of his null-rays, one that let the affected mechs come online again in some kliks. 

“You should pick them up and sort them into factions.” – he advised Optimus Prime after finishing, who stopped in his tracks at the sight of the shooting.

The Seeker then proceeded to ostentatiously offline his weapons, to show that he meant no enmity. Optimus Prime nodded to him, acknowledging the gesture and did as he was told, separating the offline mechs into two groups, dropping the Seekers beside Starscream, and standing between them and the slowly starting to move Autobots.

“Please, try to control Skywarp when he onlines. While I understand his ire, violence is not the solution.”

Starscream nodded sharply, his lipplates a tight line over his arms crossed on his chest. When Skywarp groaned at his pedes, coming online, he put a servo on him, quietly ordering the teleporter to stay the frag where he was.

The Autobot twins, along with some other Bots choose that nanoklik to break the doors and flood the room with weapons drawn and humming with power. 

 

“Every mech STAND DOWN!” – Optimus Prime’s bellow echoed within the big room’s walls, making even Starscream lift a brow plate up in a silent amusement. He’d’ve never thought that the Autobot leader could reach that level of volume, reverberating in the whole room with absolute authority. All the Autobots just getting up from the floor froze and all who burst into the room reacted to the irresistible order, lowering their weapons. Their intent, alert expressions slowly morphed into a shocked surprise as they took in the sight of the room.

“Every mech authorized to be here, sit down and behave civilly.” – he continued, at a slightly lower volume, but still brooking no arguments. – “Sideswipe, thank you for the timely action, but we won’t need it now. You may leave. Red Alert, stand down the Ark if you please. Ironhide, if you speak up that way again, I’ll have you removed to the brig. Skywarp, please try to let me or your Trine leader solve if any such issues come up again before acting.”

Ratchet was fixing the fortunately mostly minor cuts, gouges and dents that various mechs sported and tried hard not to laugh at some of the sheepish expressions that mechs wore after the Prime spoke with such authority and clear disapproval. Starscream glowered at the instigator, Skywarp angrily, but the trine bond conveyed his gratitude too for the willingness to save his honour. Thundercracker looked abhorred that he of all mechs was part of a brawl with the Autobot officers – the blue Seeker has always avoided such situations even among the far more volatile Decepticons. Ironhide looked mutinous after Optimus Prime’s reprimand but tried to swallow it back.

“Sorry, Prahm… but…” 

“No, Ironhide, it is not me whom you should apologise.”

“But Prahm…!”

“Ironhide, I will say this only once. Starscream wasn’t the one instigating our… relationship in any way. It was me. And I’m not saying this to make the situation better, but because it is the truth. Your insinuation was inacceptable, beside being completely untrue.”

Back in the Seekers’ place they agreed not to mention the exact details in any way. That was the matter between the two of them and Starscream was uncomfortable of every mech looking at him as a rape victim, he rather accepted the Autobots looking at him suspiciously as the seducer of their Prime. 

Ironhide, as expected was skeptic about Optimus Prime’s words. He grumbled a barely audible sorry towards the Seekers, which caused his leader to draw his brow plates in an expression of annoyance. But there wasn’t much he could do or say openly, until Starscream wanted to keep the details in secret. 

“Let’s try to get back to our topic. I want you to either affirm my continued leadership or express your no-confidence now, before continuing our discussion. Prowl?”

“While I cannot condone breaking our own rules, even for you, Prime, I don’t think that it would require your removal from leadership. I have known of your intentions beforehand and agreed that they were beneficial to our cause. It hasn’t changed since.”

Starscream looked up to the SIC surprised at the unexpected approval and the implications of such intentions going on before … before what? How could the Praxian know about what happened when neither he, nor the Prime told him? He knew that the mech was supremely intelligent and that tactical computer made him deduce plans from the barest of signs, but… but apparently it was good enough to put together the puzzle before every mech else.

“Thank you. Jazz?” – Optimus Prime was keeping strict protocol here.

“Ah can’t see anything wrong with you seducing the Scream… sorry, Starscream to our side. Sure, it is an unorthodox move, but you won’t have me protesting.”

“Jazz, it wasn’t like that…” – if mechs could blush, Optimus Prime would have done it then. Starscream on the other servo looked angrier than he did after Ironhide’s insult and his stare promised pain to the Autobot. Jazz wasn’t cowed though, and flashed an unrepentant grin back to the Seeker.

“Ah wouldn’t know, Prime, sorry. All Ah can see is the result.”

“Yes. Right. Ironhide?”

“Ah trust ye Prahm. Ah don’t trust them Seekers. He will influence ye.”

“I don’t intend to do anything with the Autobots or the war in general.” – Starscream interrupted them, deliberately not looking at the still fuming Ironhide – “We only asked for help because of the sparkling. We will be strictly neutrals from this time onwards, not even staying here on the Ark.”

“Ironhide, I can assure you that my standing in the war hasn’t changed and will not change either. Starscream and his Trine will not gain any knowledge of our plans or secrets, therefore can’t betray them, even if they wanted to. But I do believe them when they say that they left the Decepticons for good. I know Megatron’s opinion on carrying and sparklings…”

“Ah can’t say Ah agree with this Prahm, but Ah won’t protest. Much.”

“I only ask you to give them a benefit of doubt, Ironhide.” – Optimus resolved that he’d have to talk to his weapons specialist in private, to allay his doubts and hopefully some of his prejudices too. – “Red Alert?”

To Ironhide’s surprise, the security director wasn’t as agitated as before, in fact he was fairly calmly waiting for his turn to answer.

“Sir, I believe I had given you my approval when we last talked.” – he turned to the Seekers, explaining – “When Starscream was in our brig last time, I observed their conversation and went to Optimus Prime privately with my doubts.”

Starscream looked at Red Alert with a barely hidden surprise - “… and they call _you_ paranoid?” – he murmured, casting an icy side-glance towards Ironhide, to the quiet chuckling of nearly everyone present. 

“I also have no problems with the Seekers staying where they do now and to be under our protection as long as they remain neutral and take part in no fighting.” – Red Alert finished.

“Thank you, Red. Ratchet?”

“You know my opinion on it.” – the medic shrugged and went back to fiddle with Ironhide’s shoulder. – “It’s not the rule-breaking I’m concerned about, it is the ethical side. But that of course is between the two of you.”

At those cryptic words most Autobots present started to wonder what and how exactly the Autobot leader and the Decepticon SIC got together that got the medic care about morals and visibly putting the blame onto Optimus Prime’s shoulders. As Ratchet was wont to do, he told more by not saying anything outright than most mechs in breems of meticulous explanations. To Prowl, it was a clear confirmation of what he pieced together, while to Jazz it was a clear challenge to find it out – and as his flash of the blue visor signaled, he’d accepted it. 

-o-o-o-

Starscream seemed to enjoy the proceedings, while his trine-mates sat amazed at his sides. To see how the Autobots handled such a serious situation, a suspicion against their highest authority, the Prime; with the mech himself asking them to express their worries, doubts and even lack of confidence if any existed and answering them in total seriousness. Starscream was fairly sure that had this gone the other way and his officers were rejecting his explanations, he’d even have abdicated then. He couldn’t help but compare this to Megatron’s everpresent and rampant paranoia about all mechs serving him unquestioningly and to his own often expressed opinion just about the mech’s methods and tactics that were condemned as treachery and punished by violent beatings and other, creatively cruel punishments. 

While he’d always known that the Autobots were operating differently from the Decepticons, it was still a minor shock to see this telling episode from up close. Optimus Prime has never for a nanoklik lost his authoritative air, even though he only shouted once when the situation called for it, and never lifted his voice afterwards, not to mention the total lack of any physical threats towards the even most obnoxious mech, Ironhide. He was calm, confident and truly asking for his officers’ opinions, not just to ridicule them, like Megatron used to do. Even as he went behind their backs, he had apparently gotten the approval of two main officers for his slightly shady dealings with an enemy commander – and Starscream there momentarily even forgot that he was the target of those shady dealings. 

All in all, he was impressed by the big Autobot, especially as after gaining their approval, he went back straight to the details of their agreement. With his officers supporting him, he promised to renovate and refurbish their little abode to perfection for everything he might needed, be it for comfort or for safety – and connect it to the Ark with secure lines of communication in case of emergencies. He was fully professional while discussing the details, so much so that Starscream at times even doubted inwardly if this was the same mech kneeling at his pedes and admitting his guilt not a full joor ago. But the private comm at the end of the meeting reassured him that Optimus Prime did not forget that their true relationship was vastly different from the public one and in that Starscream was the authority.

Starscream, for the first time, pondered whether the mech was truly sorry and his atrocious act had truly been an accident, spurred by the circumstances – and if so what was he going to do about it. He couldn’t deny either that his protocols that came online with the sparkling and got stronger and stronger as it was discovered, its existence and needs acknowledged, accepted Optimus Prime as a perfect caretaker. The damned coding didn’t care about consent or circumstances of the sparking, because it moved in a much simpler universe: acknowledged Sire-bond, advantageous coding, adequate protection and long-term investment – these were its concerns and Optimus Prime scored perfectly in all of them. 

That the mech scored with him personally too in the fields of being good looking grounder and having a backstrut-shaking deep voice, that he’d love to hear as moaning his designation… this, Starscream tried to hide even from himself. He was angry at the mech, furious… even if he sometimes had to remind himself of that fact. As they went back to their place, he had time to contemplate all factors, including the one clamoring to him to go and merge with the sparkling’s sire to get more of his spark-energy. It wasn’t absolutely necessary, Starscream knew – he could theoretically bear the sparkling to term even without any further merges, but it would tax his own systems as well as the little spark, so Ratchet warned him not to even think of it.

“Thundercracker, Skywarp, I have an obligation to the sparkling. Much as I hate it needs its Sire’s spark.”

“We understand Star. Will you be all right with him?” – Thundercracker was worried about it but willing to trust his trine-leader to decide.

“Yes.” – he answered without the slightest hesitation. Nothing in Optimus Prime’s field even hinted of anything untoward either to him or their creation. – “He is safe.”

“Don’t forget that we’ve thought that before.”

“True. But I can’t see how we can avoid that.”

“Let us be close. Not in there, but… close enough to hear if he does something.”

“Voyeuring is Star’s favourite role, TC.” – Skywarp’s smirking voice intruded into the comm line.

“We wouldn’t be watching, Warp!”

“Why not?”

“Because I say so.”

“All right, TC, stay close – and mind Warp so he won’t get ideas – while I… do this.”

-o-o-o-

They had to wait a bit before the red and blue truck rolled into the factory and Optimus Prime stood up, nodding to the Seekers outside. If he wasn’t so nervous, he would have smirked how much they looked door-guards as they waved him in, but as it was it hardly registered in his suddenly anxious processor. How will Starscream act now that they have no witnesses? The former Decepticon Air Commander was completely unpredictable and Optimus Prime simply couldn’t guess what the Seeker would do in the situation.

He stopped just inside the door, rolling it almost completely close behind him. Starscream was standing in front of the berth, looking uncertain and almost as nervous as himself if the drooping, flickering wings were any indication. But he was every bit as beautiful as the first time he saw the flier eons ago, now that he dared to let his meta think of him again, appreciate his frame again, worship his wings and want to devour his lips. He would never again force him to do anything, that much he was sure. Anything they could do together would be on Starscream’s will and going as far as he would let it. He was resolved to give Starscream anything he would ask or demand.

“Starscream… I know that it is hard for you, but… I swear to everything I hold sacred that I will never again harm or force you in any way.”

Starscream stood silently for several breems not answering, not even acknowledging him.

“I want to see what made you do it.” – he said finally, very quietly, in an almost inaudible voice.

Optimus Prime didn’t answer aloud. He stepped forward, detaching and offering a datacable to the Seeker. Starscream hesitated before taking it with two talons and with a sure motion clipped it into his own dataport. It took little time to synchronize their systems before lowering his firewalls Optimus offered him access to his memories. Starscream checked the datestamps, not particularly wanting to see anything else and hesitated again. Then virtually taking a deep invent, he opened the files. 

He saw himself as Optimus Prime saw him and the view flattered the vain Seeker – he was almost glowing from the inside in the mech’s memories, no matter if he was happy, angry or even damaged. Even in the pitch dark, lit only by the faintest light of those blue optics, even deeply under, lying ungainly in a tangle of limp limbs amongst stark, dark rocks. He sees a unique being, one that can’t be sullied by injuries or dripping energon-pink injuries, whose angelic wings sway enticingly even when they are drooping shredded with pain. He hears the voice that is snarky and snappish and hisses or moans – but never as he screeches with a hoarse rasp like many if not most mock him for. He perceives a sharp intellect, a unique processor that never stops wanting to be the best and he never meets the dishonesty, the conceitedness, the relentless quest for power, for appreciation, for recognition.

Starscream never have thought that any mech would think of him so, through so many filters that turn even his worst aspects into something desirable. While he is vain, he is not blind. While he is conceited, he is not deaf. But apparently one that he’d never believe, is so. _Why_ , his processor asks querulously, _why do you idolize me so?_ Then suspicion curls in his mindspace and he snarls, _is it your way of fooling me, of colouring your memories perfect to appease me so?_ But the answer is only a shocked, slightly hurt _no!_ and Optimus Prime gives him the deepest of accesses, laying himself bare at his suspicious mind, offering not proof but the original codes that define a memory… and Starscream sees that they are untouched, unaltered, exactly as the mech saw-heard-felt him in that orn.

He is awed and a little humbled by the memories and the proof for their sincerity. A wordless apology sneaks from his processor to his open, honest and willing mind and the frozen memory-pictures snap into motion. Awe and admiration clouds him as he lays there unmoving. The desire to help, to protect weaves around him, gently settling his tangled limbs into a comfortable position. The wish to caress, to hold, to love is what strokes him in blind, little motions, heating what is under his gentle digits and himself too, loosing himself in a dream coming true. 

Utter hopelessness racks his world with silent sobs, of something he so desires but which could never be his. Silent curses swear at the war that set them apart, at Megatron for destroying the perfection he can’t even appreciate, can’t even see, at his position for making him an enemy. Attempts to get close and fail rise and choke his processor. Instances when the object of his desire appeared to notice him, to answer, to flirt, to react encourage his growing lust. Nothing personal is rejecting him, only the circumstances.

Warming, silky metal under his questing digits. Growing, lustful haze in his processor. Silent, forgiving, encouraging darkness around them. Tiny, sharp stabs of conscience piercing the haze. Knowing that it is wrong but unable to stop, to fight with the onslaught of senses. Lust growing into pleasure, desire into want, protection into possession. Disjointed thoughts warning, encouraging, stopping and urging him on. A perfect spark, a perfect star, a perfect klik of bliss. 

And eons of regretting it.

“Now you know…”


	13. Protect and Trust

Starscream unclipped the datacable with slow, automatic motions, his meta still deep in the memories he’s just seen. He was frankly freaked out by the depth of the feelings that he saw in the Autobot leader’s memories. He wasn’t used to such deep emotions… well, not outside his trine and even there it was rare to show such towards each other. Decepticons didn’t do strong emotions, unless it was hate or rage. Pit, even Seekers didn’t do such. He tried to summon back the rage that he should feel but it was slow to show up.

“Can you ever forgive me?”

Starscream pondered at the whispered question. Now that he saw what caused Optimus to take advantage of the situation… 

“I hope you will… one orn.”

White wings perked up, red optics narrowed angrily. Starscream vented short, huffing. Couldn’t he wait a little more? Be quiet, while he was trying to make up his processor?

“Starscream… I do lo…”

“STOP!” – the yell was strong enough to draw the other two Seekers into the building, rushing in almost tripping each other – but they both stopped suddenly just inside the door, Thundercracker throwing up his arm to stop Skywarp. The sight that greeted them was completely the opposite of what they feared from the shout. The flaring blue and black wings dropped in an amazed surprise.

Starscream was on Optimus Prime in a nanoklik. Thrusters propelling him forward, leaping into the truckformer and pushing him onto his back was a matter of kliks too – aside from an aborted, automatic lift of his arm, Optimus Prime still did nothing to defend himself, letting himself fell heavily on his backside onto the concrete ground under the momentum, carrying them backwards. Starscream was on top of him hissing, screeching, red optics flaming with the reawakened anger, his talons tearing off his facemask that hasn’t opened fast enough. They would need a merge anyway, why not enjoying himself… right?

“If you want it this way…” – he whispered, making no move to stop the Seeker, only holding him lightly on top of him, almost hugging. He spread those strong legs, letting the tricoloured frame settle between them. 

Starscream was visibly working himself into another rage, if his flexed out, taut as strings and vibrating wings were anything to go by, this one fuelled by the insistent pushing that tried to make him amenable to the sire of his sparkling, by the oh-so-nice-and-wanting-to-make-up-for-it Prime and by the upheaval that the sparkling protocols were playing in his meta. Thundercracker grabbed his partner’s arm, tugging him out first unobtrusively, then dragging him more forcefully, when the black Seeker whined low, wanting to remain and watch. 

“Skywarp! OUT. NOW.”

Starscream paid them no attention, his vision completely focused on the mech under him. Dark, ashen lips bit viciously into silvery white ones, the Seeker wanting to taste energon, while his remaining common sense kept him from causing any serious injuries. The kiss was dominating, aggressive, hurting, but Optimus Prime took it in stead and reciprocated it despite the slight stings where the sharp denta tore into his lipplates. He wasn’t protesting to the moves and actions of the Seeker, quite the opposite – the more aggressive Starscream became, the more he seemingly enjoyed his touches, scratches, even the dents. 

Starscream wanted to hurt him, like it hurt what he’d done, all the hardships he had to endure, wanted to give him back what he deserved... But the more he clawed and even hit the mech, the more responsive he became, his plating grew warmer, his vents worked harder to dispel the heat. He was impossible. The bleeding lips kissed back enthusiastically, like he didn’t feel his own energon dripping down from them. The blue digits reciprocated every aggressive, stinging scratch with a caring, gentle caress. While Starscream’s talons curled brutally into sensitive seams, pierced thin plating and twanged taut wires forcefully, those blunt digits fondled his ailerons affectionately and pinched his wingtips gently, like he’d pleasured fliers all in his life. 

“Pit damn you Prime, don’t tell me that you are enjoying this?”

Starscream tore his fangs away from those lascivious lips for a klik to snarl at him, holding on to his anger with all his determination. He gave no opportunity though for the Prime to answer, dominating his mouth once again in an aggressive kiss. Their frames slid and scratched on each other, drawing sparks sometimes as Starscream was rubbing his tight plating between the white legs, on the other’s panel, the small, blue square of metal trembling in response. Optimus Prime bucked up, his moan muffled by the glossa ravaging his mouth. He jerked painfully when sharp talons gripped his grille and their points dipped just a bit too deeply into the slits, for a few kliks the sensations overcoming the pleasure and going into the pain-zone. His own digits slid from the wing into the red pectoral vent, dipping inside gently to answer with teasing to the painful claws.

But the slightly painful sensation hasn’t stopped him from venting hot air and his interface panel becoming warmer, even as Starscream continued to be aggressive and forceful in his touches. The Seeker nearly attacked the blue panel with his talons, not caring that it slid aside as soon as his claws scratched on it. He also tore out the blue digits from his vent, no matter how pleasurable that fondling was, but he preferred to slam Optimus’s servos over his head and keep you there. The lack of opposition to that certainly helped him – Starscream knew that if the Prime wanted to, he could have freed himself in kliks.

But his own arousal was enough to have his spike pressurize and Starscream didn’t wait before plunging it into the hot valve under him. The tight, wet heat was entirely too welcoming, dripping with lubricants, nearly too ready for him, making the entrance far too easy, despite of the perceivable tightness of the almost never used valve. Even his anger was slowly dissipating as he thrust in and was embraced by the tight calipers, his processor swimming in the marvelous sensations that his spike was sending there.

The servos that he held captured curled inwards their digits, wanting to caress, to hold onto something, but didn’t struggle to free themselves. Instead Starscream felt the other’s glossa taking over their kiss, his ravaged, torn lips dominating his own otherwise occupied attention in a scorching embrace. In a momentary weakness, he allowed the soft gentleness of the kiss to capture him and mellow him out – but he realized it after a few kliks. Tearing his lips away, Starscream pulled out and thrust back viciously, hard and punishing, not letting the Autobot to tame him with his nice, gentle wiles.

He dictated a vicious pace, harsh and ruthless thrusts, intending to punish him. Yes, he had to remind himself, it was to punish the slagger for the rape, no matter his intentions and those fragging emotions that made him feel so good, so wanted and admired. Starscream wanted to hurt him and make him suffer until it deleted that compliant, little, infuriating smile from his faceplates. He snarled at him as he thrust deep and fast, as his free servo hit his helm, causing nothing but a smallish dent, far too insignificant for him to even notice.

Their arousal grew though all the time during the many-layered, emotionally charged coupling and when his chest plates moved apart, Starscream stared at the blue orb mesmerized. Spark deep protocols took over and his cockpit slid aside, his armour split apart to let access to his spark. He lowered himself, the frantic pistoning of red hips slowing as their sparks’ coronas touched. It was the first time he felt the mech, his surface emotions that were just like what he displayed, no masks present, no acting out or deceiving. He was just as compliant, enamored, gentle and loving inside as he showed outwardly.

Starscream’s servo fell, the last blow he started before the spark merge reaching Optimus’s helm. True pain flicked through his face for the first time during their encounter, as one of his antennae was bent and suddenly Starscream felt the pain spearing back through their touching sparks like it was his own. He lifted his offending servo, hesitantly caressing the hurt, his spark sending a shy, wordless apology to him. He felt the mech more than ever and instead of the rage, it made him almost contrite. Was it physical punishment, he really wanted? Starscream wasn’t sure any more. 

_::If you want it… take it.::_ \- came through the merge. - _::I know that I have to pay for what I’ve done.::_

_::I… I don’t know any more…::_

His slowly dissipating anger leaked into the other’s spark and from there guilt and a desperate wish to set things right came back. 

_::If I could I’d turn back time… and break my own servo before it touched you::_

_::I’d want to have been awake to break them for you::_

Slight amusement curled between them, their sparks merged deeper and deeper, revealing more and more of their selves to each other. Starscream delved into the honest idealism of the Prime and almost snorted.

_::You are really impossible..::_

_::At least you know that I’m far from perfect.::_

He hesitantly let the other see his deep-seated, bitter cynicism, his indomitable free will and a repressed, hidden idealism that echoed the Autobot’s own.

_::Why hidden?::_

_::What others don’t know won’t hurt me.::_

_::I can teach you to trust::_

_::See where it led me?::_

The small, tightly wound, little consciousness that so far stayed behind Starscream’s spark hesitantly floated forward, while remaining in the corona of his spark. It perceived the roiling, combating emotions at first and hid, but as they started to reconcile it too became curious and hungry for the energy it perceived as its Sire’s. From Optimus silent awe flooded Starscream’s spark together with so much gratefulness and happy elation that he felt his optics starting to shutter rapidly with the sudden influx of cleanser. His spark stuttered at the warm, thankful ocean of feelings. Not even his trine-mates made him feel so deeply and fully happy. He felt almost smothered in fluff - but it only caused a nanoklik of panic before he sighed and… accepted it.

_::It is you who made me feel this. You and what you gave me.::_

_::I…::_

For the first time in his long and eventful life, Starscream couldn’t think of anything to say. 

_::You don’t have to.::_

Optimus Prime sent warm, tender amusement towards him. The small spark basked in both their energies, feeding from them, building his spark code, strengthening his bond with both of his creators. It didn’t have distinct thoughts yet, but his small, contended happiness was a bright thread of light in the tapestry of their emotions. 

Starscream blinked inside, within their connected sparks and outside, where his hips were still automatically driving into the Prime, while his servo let the other’s go and hugged him close. The warm fuzziness in him became tinted with the arousal again that Optimus was only happy to let into the forefront from his part as well.

_::You know I have no problem whatsoever with you in either role or position::_

_::Good. I’ll hold you to that yet.::_

He was short of words again, and he felt that it was hard for Optimus as well to find coherent sentences. The small spark danced happily in the orgy of their spark-energies. Starscream’s thrusts got faster again, driving them both towards to culmination. His glossa licked apologetically at the tears on his mouth before burying his helm into his neck cables, sucking on the sturdy but still delicate metal. Moans exchanged their words, wiping out coherency in their sparks too. Charge grew and skittered all over their bodies where they touched.

Starscream felt Optimus’s valve calipers clench irregularly, the valve walls almost undulating in his growing ecstasy. His spike thrust once more deeply, hitting a small, buried node, drawing a loud moan from his mouth, then once again, clanging his red pelvic plates strongly into the white ones before release exploded through him, and erupted from his spike and in his spark together. 

::STAR!::

Optimus shouted in ecstasy, his valve clamping down on his straining spike as it spurted hot transfluid into him. Their sparks felt like going supernova, the little one nestled happily between them, basking in their churning, roiling energies. Starscream slumped onto Optimus, his vents gusting out scorching hot air to cool his frame. They both had trouble to find any sort of coherency after the mind-blowing overload. 

“Hmmm… that was nice…”

“Nice?!?” – Starscream collected enough energy for an indignant outburst – “You call that… NICE?”

“Ohh, all right… it was processor-blowing.” – Optimus Prime smirked up to him from his position on the ground, underneath Starscream’s frame, visibly comfortable there, even with the Seeker’s spike still in his valve. – “No surprise that I couldn’t find words at first.”

“Better.” – he scowled at the mech, not wanting to get up just yet. He didn’t want to betray how his leg struts would probably be unable to hold him up. His spark swirled contentedly in its chamber, the sparkling’s pure joy a balm to his earlier aches. But he rolled off the mech, flicking his wings out of the way, growling at the mess on their pelvic plates. The building unfortunately lacked any proper wash racks, so they had to be content with solvent-soaked cloths to wipe down any particular dirt. Optimus Prime looked sympathetically, knowing just how much in general Seekers hated being dirty. 

“I’ll send over Grapple and Hoist and they’ll whip this place into shape in no time.”

“Sooner is the better…” – Starscream murmured, disgustedly cleaning most of the mess off, tucking away his spike. – “You two can come in now, Warp, I know you’ve been eavesdropping!”

“S-sorry, Star!” – Skywarp squeaked behind the door, while Thundercracker’s deep voice chided him from a bit further, the blue Seeker obviously prowled around the building to guard it from any comers.

-o-o-o-

Starscream’s anger was on and off throughout their next meetings, but even to others it was obvious that it was more and more difficult for him to keep it up. By their third meeting it was hardly more than the usual Starscream snarkiness, his trine-mates assured the departing Prime. Starscream also merged a few times with his trine-mates – the sparkling had a voracious appetite and soaked up every bit of spark-energy they could give to it. He strongly hoped that it would be a Seeker… or at the very least a flier and adding his trine-mates’ spark coding to the mix would help the little one in that greatly. 

Optimus Prime didn’t seem to mind it. They both avoided the topic of bonding, him because he didn’t want Starscream to freak out before starting to trust him; the Seeker, because he wasn’t sure still whether it was what he wanted or not. The Autobot leader certainly turned out better than he’d thought and nothing in his behaviour even hinted of that one act which still freaked out Starscream when he thought of it. It was really his only argument against the mech and while it was a strong one, it started to fade in his meta. 

 

“Star, you’ll have to move in there with them soon.”

Thundercracker noted it, after he observed that it took twice the time for Starscream to transform than usual. While the carrying was in no way visible on his form, the protoform’s added weight and the gestation chamber’s unwieldy mass made it harder and harder for him to transform and take off for their ornly flying. To Starscream’s greatest disgust, it completely fouled his top speed too, making it all too easy for his trine-mates to catch him in their usual tag-like flying games.

“I know. Ratchet hinted at it last time and looked displeased when I ignored him.” – Starscream answered to his blue trine-mate from the comfortable berth. 

The former factory building has been completely renovated in the inside, making it a comfortable, if temporary home for the three Seekers. On the outside it was the same abandoned ruin, but in the inside a comfortable, huge berth, wash racks and even entertainment made it a livable place. They now had proximity sensors in the nearby buildings and secure connection to the Ark as well. It was one of these sensors that suddenly started to blink, making the blue Seeker stand up hurriedly to check the hidden monitors.

“Slag. It’s Ravage.”

“He wouldn’t come here accidentally. Tell the Autobots and go out checking with Warp.”

Thundercracker hurriedly contacted the Ark, telling Blaster that they had a cassette sneaking around and grabbed Warp to fly around the area, checking for other mechs around, hoping to lead any away from their home. Starscream wasn’t worried yet, but he checked the defenses and his null-rays – as the sparkling drew more and more of his energy into building its protoform, he hardly had any reserves, much less enough to fire his own weapons. The trine bond was wide open to catch anything that happened. They were ready.

“Cons! They are here!” – Thundercracker commed back hurriedly and Starscream even heard weapons discharge in the background.

“Slag! Where are those Autodorks when you need them?”

“Blaster, we’d really appreciate some assistance, like NOW!” – he shouted into the com.

“They are on their way, Starscream. Don’t worry.”

“Well, excuse me if I do…” – he answered but before he could finish, an explosion tore one of the walls wide open, breaking up the comm line as well in the process. Starscream run towards the door but before it could open fully, his wing was grabbed from behind by a servo he knew very well… intimately one might say, and he was in one smooth motion jerked off his thrusters and slammed to the ground.

“Frag you…!” – he diverted all his remaining power into the null rays and fired onto the shape leaning over him. Megatron, as he feared wasn’t in the slightest bit bothered by his low-power shot and grabbed his neck, choking his main energon line there. Above his mocking laugh Starscream heard his trine-mates fighting in the distance… it was a diversion he thought, to draw Warp away from him and leave him in the nonexistent mercy of Megatron. He never had a lot of chance of winning against him in a servo to servo fight, but now, heavy, tired and depleted with the sparkling he had absolutely none… unless he could stall for time and hold on until the Autobots arrived.

“What made you drop by oh, Mighty Megatron…?” – he choked off with difficulty, trying for an insulting tone.

“Even with your usual treacherousness, it is a new low to defect.” – Megatron snarled back, his servo tightening on Starscream’s neck, while the other tried to hit the writhing Seeker in the cockpit. – “You also carry something that I declared to be terminated.”

Starscream screamed, or rather tried to – the pain was far more than he ever felt from just one blow, but his vocalizer was choked and he could only whimper slightly at the sensation. Kicking out with his thrusters, he tried to throw him off but with no success. Megatron just kneeled over his legs, seriously threatening them to be squashed under his weight. The choking hold on his neck cables caused his vision to fritz and he saw only static for the next few blows that he tried to deflect with his arms, defending the sparkling.

The hits broke his arm guards but his cockpit was still intact – it wasn’t even a conscious decision to protect it as long as he could lift his arms and hold there. Just like the previous time, the sparkling protocols took over and drew all his power into its survival. Starscream was almost tempted to curse the ruthless efficiency of the codes, but he realized that even consciously he’d defend the little spark before his own life. It was a heady realization for the generally egoistical Seeker. 

His vision swimming, his hearing glitching, he hardly perceived the outside noises. But he did realize with no little relief when Megatron’s weight suddenly disappeared from him. His processor powered up at the influx of energon, just like his optics and he saw a distinctive red-blue frame grappling with Megatron at the far end of the building. Still a bit choking he sat up, arms still in front of his spark-chamber, protecting it automatically, watching the fight warily still.

He almost shot Ratchet when the medic dropped to his knees beside him and tried to pry away his bleeding servos away from his cockpit, but fortunately for them both he had no spare energy to fire a single null-ray. 

“Idiot Autobot.” – he snarled with real anger – “Never surprise a Decepticon on guard. Much less a carrying Seeker.”

“You must be all right if you can snark.” – was the medic’s only answer deliberately mistaking the anger for humor in an attempt to lighten him up.

Optimus Prime in the meanwhile was pummeling the surprised Megatron who hasn’t expected any mech to interrupt his little session with the errant Seeker and consequently was hardly able to put up any resistance to the startlingly enraged Autobot leader. Starscream watched the beating with an open and gloating glee from under Ratchet’s quick patching and bracing of his broken arms. He quickly realized that the Autobot didn’t behave in his usual calm and restrained fashion; Optimus Prime was seriously and almost viciously beat Megatron until the warlord, surprised and unable to defend himself effectively fell offline.

The silence that fell on the building let them hear the outside noises of the battle that were also dying down. Optimus Prime stood up from Megatron, with efficient, quick moves cuffed the warlord at servos and pedes and stepped over to Starscream. A light touch at one wing and Starscream answered with a silent nod. He was all right and more importantly the sparkling was fine too. Ratchet helped him to stand and continued to support him, despite of the snarl that this earned to him. The fragger just smirked back like he knew that Starscream wasn’t going to bite him.

“Go, see to them.” – Starscream croaked, his vocalizer suddenly constricting as he watched the offline and trussed up Megatron barely a few meters away. But before he could step outside, Soundwave’s unmistakable drone was heard from the impromptu battlefield:

“Decepticons: retreat.”

Starscream’s trinemates landed by his side, worrying but happy to see him up, while the Autobots collected around them protectively.

“You. Ark. Now.” – Ratchet could be terrifying even in the moment of victory. Skywarp stuck his glossa out and warped away with Starscream, leaving the cursing medic where he stood. Thundercracker flew after them in no time as well. Optimus Prime smirked at his shell-shocked CMO while the Autobots collected themselves and started towards their ship with the cuffed and still offline Megatron in custody. Quite a few of them snickered as well at Ratchet’s cursing and what caused it.

“Seekers. What did you expect?”

“You’d know…” – Ratchet growled back.

A few joors later in the medbay the Autobot leader stood beside the berth where the onlining Starscream lay, holding one repaired servo and hoping that his wouldn’t be broken once the temperamental Seeker discovered his boldness in doing so. 

“You’ll stay with me… us now?” – the slip was totally unintentional this time, but he didn’t mind it.

Starscream stared back, the red optics slowly softened in their glower. He didn’t pull the servo away.

“Yes. I will.”

 

-o-o-o-

 

“I want you to publicly recognize me as your bondmate.”

“Of course I will, Starscream.”

“As your Ruling Consort when this slagging war ends.”

“Naturally.”

“With all the rights and privileges such a position entails.”

“They go with the title of course.”

“Besides being your Air Commander.”

“Who else could be more fitting?”

“I want to be heard and my opinion recognized in your council and in private.”

“I am not Megatron, Starscream. I will always listen to you.”

“If I demand the Matrix, will you still answer so cheerfully and in the affirmative?”

“No.” – Optimus Prime hasn’t made the slightest attempt to hide his honest and ever widening smile – “What you’ve asked so far were all what I thought to be yours because you deserved it. The Matrix, well, it chooses its bearer and it hasn’t left me yet.”

Starscream couldn’t help the answering smile drawing the corner of his mouth upwards.

Maybe it would work out after all.

Outside, a wide, happy grin mirrored itself on two listening Seekers’ faceplates.

**END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story is ended with this, but I'm already planning a sequel...


End file.
